Final Fantasy XIII

Towns would have helped the game profoundly. The combat was outstanding, and the lore of the world had a lot of potential that was unfortunately never realized because of the lack of towns and chattable NPC's to make it feel like an actual world.

The lack of a coherent vision isn't surprising. The game often felt like it didn't know what the heck the overarching theme was, and often fell back on the very tired and generic "we're all in this together, till the end" plot point to push the story forward.

Looks like a direct sequel may be in the making for FFXIII.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/114/1143852p1.html

I think the bad points to this game where the pop songs and some too sexual characters, but apart from that it was a very good game.

Originally posted by BackFire
Looks like a direct sequel may be in the making for FFXIII.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/114/1143852p1.html

Oh god.

Just because it's a sequel doesn't mean it's going to be bad. Final Fantasy Versus XIII looks pretty good, (though I own an Xbox 360 so I won't be able to play it).

Originally posted by Kosmic King
Just because it's a sequel doesn't mean it's going to be bad. Final Fantasy Versus XIII looks pretty good, (though I own an Xbox 360 so I won't be able to play it).

I could see the sequel being quite good. The flaws in FFXIII were many but not so deep as to not be fixed pretty easily. Add some towns, some other diversions besides fighting and watching cinematics, could be a very solid game.

Final Fantasy XIII is the most underrated game of all time in my opinion. I'm glad it's getting a direct sequel.

I curious, the only things I've heard are negative about this game apart from the visuals and the late-game gameplay. What exactly makes this game good for people?

In my opinion, the best battle system any RPG has to offer; it's menu based but the fast paced nature of it adds a sense of action to the system and the paradigms add a very nice tactical/strategic touch. It also has the best battle music I've ever come across in an RPG, and the lack of random encounters is another nice feature.

Technically speaking, it has some of the finest visuals a game has ever seen, with the incredible art design far seperating it from any of its technical rivals and collectively granting it by far the finest visuals you can find for a game. The detail is incredible and the beauty of it is undeniable.

The music is pretty incredible, and despite Nobuo Uematsu's absence I'd say it's still on par with any other Final Fantasy game. As mentioned, the battle music is incredible and the best I've personally ever come across; in "The Promise" and its variations it has one of the finest main themes you can find (including the vocalised counterpart which in my opinion is one of the very finest vocalised songs to appear in a game (Serah's theme)), and the general level of music is very nice. It's implemented very well into both the gamepay and storyline.

The story, while not the best in the series, is of the general standard set from Final Fantasy VI all the way to XII. It's of the greatest cinematic quality in the series which adds greatly to its immersive factor, and like any of the other Final Fantasy games since VI you can expect a very emotional, convoluted storyline full of numerous plot twists, a detailed backstory and a great and imaginative world to experience.

I find it hard to take the negative comments too seriously for the most part, considering they revolve around its linearity which is a general trait of the entire series. Final Fantasy has never been about exploration, and any that there has been has usually been either illusary or minimal. So if you're not a fan of the series and you don't like linearity, fair enough, but I have no respect for fans of the series who critisise the game on those terms. The cutscene/battle ratio and the emphasis on the two features provides great pacing for the storyline and ensures that the player immserses themselves in the two areas the game does best, and for those that absolutely demand variety, you have an expansive Crystarium customisation system to use, an expansive datalog to read through, and later the game world does actually open up.

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Oh god, stop it with the music. Its a game, not a damn opera. >:[

In my opinion, the best battle system any RPG has to offer; it's menu based but the fast paced nature of it adds a sense of action to the system and the paradigms add a very nice tactical/strategic touch. It also has the best battle music I've ever come across in an RPG, and the lack of random encounters is another nice feature.

It was my understanding that the battle system only actually gets good after about 6 hours or something. That seems like a massive detracting force from the contention that its good imo.

Technically speaking, it has some of the finest visuals a game has ever seen, with the incredible art design far seperating it from any of its technical rivals and collectively granting it by far the finest visuals you can find for a game. The detail is incredible and the beauty of it is undeniable.

Meh.

I find it hard to take the negative comments too seriously for the most part, considering they revolve around its linearity which is a general trait of the entire series. Final Fantasy has never been about exploration, and any that there has been has usually been either illusary or minimal. So if you're not a fan of the series and you don't like linearity, fair enough, but I have no respect for fans of the series who critisise the game on those terms. The cutscene/battle ratio and the emphasis on the two features provides great pacing for the storyline and ensures that the player immserses themselves in the two areas the game does best, and for those that absolutely demand variety, you have an expansive Crystarium customisation system to use, an expansive datalog to read through, and later the game world does actually open up.

Maybe the people just don't like running down hallways for 12 hours. 😖hrug:

The sequel is now official.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/114/1144400p1.html

XIII is the only game I have ever traded in. The only good thing about it the game was that it gave me a discount when I bought Red Dead Redemption. 😎

Originally posted by srankmissingnin
XIII is the only game I have ever traded in. The only good thing about it the game was that it gave me a discount when I bought Red Dead Redemption. 😎

Harsh!

I picked GOW3 over it when it came out in like March but I still thought I was missing out. Is it uninteresting or what?

Originally posted by wakkawakkawakka
Harsh!

I picked GOW3 over it when it came out in like March but I still thought I was missing out. Is it uninteresting or what?

I hated everything about it. The story. The character design. The voice acting. The combat system. If you want to corridor crawl and fight uninspired enemies with a on button combat system with cutscenes interspersed every few minutes to fill you in on a melodramatic and convoluted story line than makes Bayonetta look logical then you might have a blast.

A lot people will disagree but I think 12 is the best Final Fantasy, and it is a shame that Square decided take such a giant leap backwards after moving forward like the did on 12. I mean Balthier and Basche were so insanely awesome that the entire cast of 13 insulting by comparison.

Meh, Balthier and Basche were pretty cool, but they were really just archetypes rather than actual characters imo. I can't actually remember personality-wise anything about Basche to tell the truth.

Balthier was the only decent character in the game. Basche was crap.

Originally posted by Nephthys
Meh, Balthier and Basche were pretty cool, but they were really just archetypes rather than actual characters imo. I can't actually remember personality-wise anything about Basche to tell the truth.

Basche was just a brooding tough guy I guess... but he was manly! Balthier was a smooth talking, gallant gentlemen rogue. 😎

Leagues better then angsty cease pools of androgyny that pollute the rest of the Final Fantasy (and most jrpgs)games *cough* Cloud *cough* Squall *cough*. Honestly I liked playing rpgs better when the graphics were so bad I couldn't tell I was playing a sexually ambiguous girly boy with feathered hair and a half shirt. There is a problem when the manliest main protagonist in a FF game is Lightning. 🙁