[My View] Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)

I actually first learned about the newest (Now not so new) Final Fantasy game while in the bathroom reading the paper. I could have very easily let my distaste for the series get the better of me and turned the page, but I had nothing better to do and plus the picture they put up caught my attention. It looked super real. The article essentially said that the game carried over some elements near and dear to the franchise but essentially tried to reinvent the game. Complaints often range from "It's too linear" to "I hate you because you changed stuff". Fanboys will be irrational though. Contrary to what many fans think, I find this game to be the best in the series and I'll lay out my reasons why in a second (Or several minutes, depends on your reading speed I guess).

The Story

As with any new Final Fantasy title, they start off completely fresh in a new realm with no baring on past characters, events and all that other jazz. Reoccuring themes often include chocobos and weapon/summon names. The story takes place in Caccoon, which is from what I've gathered a small planet that orbits(?) a much larger, fiercer planet, called Pulse. Both planets utilize entities known as "Fal'Cie", these beings however, are not fond of each other from the other planet and it's currently causing a great deal or turmoil for those caught in the crossfire. Fal'Cie often "curse" people or "brand" them, to do their bidding. These poor souls are called L'Cie, regardless of which side cursed them. L'Cie are to follow their "focus" or be turned into deformed and mindless creatures called C'eith. This is where the actual goal comes in. Someone related to the characters has been turned L'Cie and you're off to save her. You start off on a train... wait... familiar? You crash said train and all sorts of crazy Final Fantasy shinanigans begin.

Story Progression

Some games do encyclopedia's right, and others do not. This is one of those games that does not. They lean on said system to fill in the blanks that are fairly important to character development but are barely touched on. And while it provides information on current events, I've yet to see anything regarding the building of said realm or the history of it. Something Star Ocean 3 did exceptionally well. But that's beside the point.

This game is one of the most linear storylines I've ever experienced. You spend a great deal of time alternating between the fractioned party members who spend this time finding a reason to go on. While this doesn't appeal to everyone I kinda like it. Despite the fact that I was sometimes bored or annoyed with following a long long long long longlonglonglonglong hallway. I wasn't frustrated and lost, something that happens far more than you would believe. I'm directionally retarded, even in video games. This gave the game a very cinematic appeal to it. Something Final Fantasy has done exceptionally well across nearly all their titles (From what I understand, I only barely played 7 and 8 oh.. and Dissidia 1 and 2). The voice acting was solid too and they included a few accents as well, something I can't remember seeing in other RPG's.

Now, a lot of Fanboys didn't like this, they wanted side-quests and long and silly journeys on an overworld. I don't. Infact, I think side-quests in Final Fantasy games are really boring, and despite the fact they're optional, I'd do them anyways because I know I'd get something rediculously good for doing it. They're too serious. The franchise in general is a little series too. Probably why I like the Tales series so much better, they're not afraid to crack a joke every now and then. Granted, there were some funny parts in XIII, but it was nothing in comparison to the comical anime style of any Tales game.

The Characters

Woo, we gots us a damsel in distress. Perfect way to start off any game. Cept she dies. Like, right away. But it's cool! You have a "Focus", we should probably do that, instead of y'know, turning into some ugly thing. The characters development generally focuses on well.. their focus. Which, doesn't exactly seem very appealing to the masses, or them. I came to this game having already played Final Fantasy Dissidia, and it just so happens that Lightning was the only character I could play with any delusion of skill. So, I naturally was already attached to her and directed that at her weapon, which I upgraded alot. Nobody else got the same treatment. This backfired much later in the game as I found out you actually can't just coast through the game with 3 characters. I was kinda depressed with how little you really learn about her. I mean, it took 30 hours of gameplay just to find out her real name and they don't really give a clear indication as to why she changed it in the first place. Her character really lacked body. Light aside though, I was impressed with Sazh. His backstory was actually pretty real, and his parental instincts make it that much more real it also helps that he's pretty cool. Snow was probably my third favourite, and no, it's not because of his name. He was just the least annoying of the remaining four.

The Point

This game is freakin' beautiful. I took a great deal of time admiring everything from the graphics to the motion capture to the voice acting. All increadibly well done. It was fun just looking around and deducing what kind of work went into making this one scene. The soundtrack is always amazing. The combat system was involved, something I thought the whole franchise was never going to fix and while linear, it was a good enough story to keep going.

This is probably the first time Square Enix doesn't deserve all the shit it's getting for a game they made. ('Cept maybe the Eidolon's, those psuedo transformers are stupid as hell xD) This is, by far, the best in the series. It kept me playing for more than 5 hours at once, something NONE of the others could do and I power game. 20 hours is not a stretch if I'm playing a good game. I've yet to finish it yet 'cause I keep dying to one boss, but that's beside the point. (died 2 times so far...)

Point being, I like this game and FF Fanboys don't. So Me: 2 Fanboys : 0

Funfact: The PS3 version is harder than the Xbox version. They probably assumed the American Console Users (The Amazing Brick or Xbox, if you didn't catch that) couldn't handle a real challenging environment.

Funfact 2: Fang was supposed to be a dude.

Funfact 3: I wrote this completely blind in the dark on my bed with my wireless keyboard. So chances are I'm going to spend copious amounts of time fixing all the typos and accidental enters.

Incase you didn't notice, I wrote this at 3 in the morning. I couldn't sleep and I needed to direct my extra energy at something.

I know it's a bit scatter brained and kinda hard to follow, but there was just SOOO much to cover and I didn't even get to cover everything I wanted to. I could have spent alot of time gushing about how real everything looked and how I often walked around just to see Light's hips move... but... yeahhhhhhhhh. I also could have talked more about how I like nearly all the soundtracks FF puts out.

FFXIII-2 looks like shit though. Everything that made this game right has now reverted back to the old FF template. I'll play it anyways cause it costed me money, but I doubt I'll like it. Time travel sounds really obnoxious. =[

I really enjoyed FFXIII, but I haven't had the chance to play the second one

Trillz wrote:I really enjoyed FFXIII, but I haven't had the chance to play the second one

Yeah, see. It was a good game! I just beat XIII last week and started XIII-2 soon after. Didn't get very far before getting absorbed by the new Tales of Graces game. Few things about XIII-2 from what I've played though, the soundtrack really doesn't fit the scene from what I've seen so far. And... things are really strange in the beginning. I'll probably play it later in the month when I'm not as busy though.

I have no comments on this topic but I heard someone say, "I got this!!" either on tv or rl (I forget now, lol it's been a few days) and I had to stop myself from laughing so hard, remembering you in Vindi Final XDDDD
Ok, carry on ;D

Vintersorg wrote:I have no comments on this topic but I heard someone say, "I got this!!" either on tv or rl (I forget now, lol it's been a few days) and I had to stop myself from laughing so hard, remembering you in Vindi Final XDDDD
Ok, carry on ;D

I'm never going to live that phrase down, am I?

Nope

I have FF-XIII and as it is right now, I could beat the game pretty easily. However I feel the need to complete every fal'cie quest before I end the game and I just don't have a whole lot of time right now for too many game, so I had to put it on hold =0=

Edoneh wrote:However I feel the need to complete every fal'cie quest before I end the game

lol, story of my videogame life during 1st-2nd playthroughs.

I've only watched an LP of the game, but it was interesting :] Can't really say I have much more comments atm as my brain is sleepy...

ftwinz wrote:

Edoneh wrote:However I feel the need to complete every fal'cie quest before I end the game

lol, story of my videogame life during 1st-2nd playthroughs.

I've only watched an LP of the game, but it was interesting :] Can't really say I have much more comments atm as my brain is sleepy...

I usually beat a game first then go back and do all the extras on the second playthrough xD... Especially with Tales games... so many missable side-quests. Jeez.

Edit: Forgot to mention I avoided the Fal'Cie quests like the plague though. The open ended exploration after just dealing with raw storyline for the first 9 or so chapters wasn't very welcome. =[ Those evil turtle giants nibbed me so hard when I first got to that part.

FinalPrayer wrote:I usually beat a game first then go back and do all the extras on the second playthrough xD... Especially with Tales games... so many missable side-quests. Jeez.

*nod* I usually try to play a game w/o a guide the first time around, and then go for the 100% completion status afterward or on a second playthrough, but it depends on the game sometimes...

If it's as bulky w/ sidequests as FFXII is, then I kinda try to clump the quests together into manageable chunks as opposed to having a huge boatload of 'em by end-game.

And ouch, hope you've got band-aids big enough for those battle scars o-o;...

I'm about... half-way through Final Fantasy XIII-2. It's... not so much good as I'm curious on how they figured the storyline would work. They kinda tossed certain story aspects out the window from XIII-1 that were never addressed.

I'll probably write another wall of text explaining how I felt about the game. I'm 'technically' enjoying the game, just not to a great extent so far. xD...