FFXIII, it's almost here

[darien87]

Played it today. Total garbage. Don't get it. Just like FFXII

Well I didn't play XII so I don't know if I would like it or not. But maybe I'll take the $5 I put down on it and put it towards GOW 3.

 

[j_garcia]

Yes, I do believe you have the option of having the Japanese language track. And YES...GOWIII would be a MUCH better investment than FFXIII IMO.

 

[Audioholics]

I've never gotten into this franchise, but it always seemed intriguing to me - mostly due to its excellent graphics.

 

[j_garcia]

I've never gotten into this franchise, but it always seemed intriguing to me - mostly due to its excellent graphics.

These games definitely have the best cutscenes ever done.

You could always watch Final Fantasy:Advent Children on BD then. All the weird story and characters with the spectacular visuals and no tedious battling

 

[MinusTheBear]

I am going to pass on this game as well. At the time when it was announced long ago that this game will be available on the 360 I was very excited but honestly, lost interest over time.

After playing Mass Effect 2 so early on, my expectations are set very high for any new RPG's coming out this year. Its ruined me for other games.

 

[ratso]

i bought it on the first day. (always been a sucker for jrpg's). it looks beee-yoootiful. characters are about what you expect - busty girls, effeminate guys, annoying "kids". but hey, again it's a J- rpg. the battles system is good. no more grinding or "kill this monster 200 times in a row and hope he drops a rare crystal that is one of 50 needed to buy a sword" (which of course, IS A GOOD THING). it's very linear and there are no towns or NPC's and very few side quests which may or may not be a good thing depending on your viewpoint. all in all, i think i'm going to like it, but that's what i thought about the last 2 and i never even finished either. so we'll see.

 

[Ito]

What about Nier? Resonance of Fate looks a LOT like FF to me, but they said it will add some new things that make it different from a traditional JRPG.

Nah, I mean Nier looks good, but not drool worthy.

However, Resonance of Fate looks AMAZING. Seriously, It plays a lot like Valkyria Chronicles which is an amazing game, and the last tri-ace game I played, Valkyrie Profile, was brilliant. This this game isn't a sleeper hit, I will be astonished.

As for FFXIII I've put 5 hours into the game so far. The first 2.5 hours are down right painful, seriously, I was regretting my purchase sooo bad at first. The game has picked up a lot after that. The characters get less annoying and it moves away from the sloppy as hell way of story telling that it uses in the beginning. Sahz i probably my favorite character so far, pretty much cause everyone else sucks.

As for the story, so far it's confusing as hell because they really haven't explained anything and I don't really give a sh*t at the moment. The English translation feels terrible, and by terrible, I mean there is a ton of cheesy lines, which shouldn't be happening with such a high budget.

The battle system is really meh so far, although it is getting better as they add stuff. I really wish I could get another battle system like X's, and this is far from it. I want to strategize, not just ram the x button, which it seems like the planed on, they have a freakin' auto-battle button for the love of god.

Right now this game is far worse than I expected, and I was already kind of prepared for a let down. I'm giving it a few more hours of game play to get me, otherwise I am going to see if I can't return it or sell. I really should have waited the week for Resonance of Fate.

Oh, and audio-related question: Does anyone else feel that the bass in this game is really muddy? Even my girlfriend thought that when I was playing.

 

[Serj22]

The bass is muddy, it's downright irritating for everyone else in the house too. Don't worry about the gameplay opening up for about 25 hours. I put 12 hours into this game, and it's still linear, and still mashing X to choose "auto-battle" since that's the only thing you can do, besides change the way you auto-battle - it's like you're not even playing, you're more watching it. I returned my copy yesterday. Best decision I ever made.

 

[j_garcia]

In case you didn't read the review, they said there is no "exploring" in FFXIII, it is 100% linear. PTOM called it "playing in a tube" since you just go from event to event sequentially.

 

[Wafflesomd]

Every Final Fantasy game:

The cut scenes are incredible, then it moves to game play, and the visuals are so bad in comparison, all you can do is laugh.

I personally can't stand JRPG's.

 

[bombarde32]

VI: You were being used to channel Espers, and are actually a product created for war.
VII: You are living someone else's life. You never did the things you said you did, and you didn't know they weren't true.
VIII: The bad guy was your FOSTER MOTHER, your companions were there.
IX: You are actually from another planet, and were deserted
X: YOU AREN'T REAL! YOU DIED 1,000 YEARS AGO, also, AURON'S DEAD TOO!
Then there's XII: You want to be a sky pirate.

/rant

<Note: I re-arranged the post but did not change the comments. Also, VI was FF3 in the US for those who don't know.>

So in other words you hate every US released Final Fantasy except the first two? And you complained about getting killed all the time? That's Final Fantasy all over the place; particularly on the first game which you appear to not hate. Gesh. Go find a new series if you hate it that much.

In other news ... I'm about 10 hours in and so far I love it. I was deeply dissapointed in how easy the games got starting at FF 9 and how bad the stories became. It seemed the focus was completing shifted away from gameplay and into graphics and audio effects.

The new game has a very linear path for the opening along with limited options. It introduces the controls similar to FF 8 (except even more slowly) through a series of tutorials.

However, even with a few hours of linear play and very limited controls the story was, frankly, engaging. Now the game is opening up and the new battle system is fun. Not terribly challenging although I hear it will get harder. You can input all your leader's choices manually or "auto battle" to let it pick what the AI thinks are the best commands.

One minor beef I have is the "No Go" zones on the map. Meaning, even though it looks like you should be able to walk there you can't. For example, there was a leaning stone tower that clearly had enough space for me to walk under it. However, I had to walk around it. They could take a lesson from Bungie (Halo) in how to define and place objects on the screen.

Likes: Great A/V. Wonderful/fresh story (so far). Can see where this will get challenging. Intelligent AI for auto battle.
Dislikes: Camera reminds me of Kingdom Hearts. "No Go" zones on the map. The party is 3 character and I have limited say over what the supporting characters do.

I have played and beaten every U.S. released Final Fantasy game except FF9 which was so awful I just couldn't force myself through it so I know what I'm talking about in this series. This is BY FAR the best since FF8 and I have no qualms recommending it to any RPG fan.

 

[bombarde32]

Played it today. Total garbage. Don't get it. Just like FFXII

I 100% disagree.

I'm not far enough in to say this reinstates FF as the "gold standard of RPG" but if you don't play to at least the 15 hour point (minimum) you should not be allowed to comment.

The game opens up SLOWLY. That is both story, controls and freedom to 'move about the cabin.' The way the main party is brought together requires a linear opening. Deal with it. Seriously, give it some time to start getting all your battle options, harder characters and the ability to move beyond the linear path. The game changes significantly as you move along.

 

[Nemo128]

I have played and beaten every U.S. released Final Fantasy game except FF9 which was so awful I just couldn't force myself through it so I know what I'm talking about in this series. This is BY FAR the best since FF8 and I have no qualms recommending it to any RPG fan.

FF9 was far better than 8 and you're probably the only person that's played every US FF who thinks otherwise. FF8 was trash. I've played every FF. Period. US or not. FF8 was trash. TRASH. Yes you will respond and dispute it, TRASH!!! TRAAAAAAAASSSSSHHHH!!!!!!!

 

[bombarde32]

FF9 was far better than 8 and you're probably the only person that's played every US FF who thinks otherwise. FF8 was trash. I've played every FF. Period. US or not. FF8 was trash. TRASH. Yes you will respond and dispute it, TRASH!!! TRAAAAAAAASSSSSHHHH!!!!!!!

Hey Nemo. Nah, I won't argue the point. In the end, we have so many games out there because not everyone has the same tastes.

At any rate ... my overarching point was that on 13 the game opens up slowly. If you are at the 5 to 10 hour mark persevere. It won't always be "attack, attack." Eventually you can "attack, attack, attack" ... along with some other options if you prefer.

BTW - The high point of the series was clearly FF2, with a close finish from FF6. And FF9 should have left Orko where he belonged. With He-Man.

 

[Nemo128]

And FF9 should have left Orko where he belonged. With He-Man.

Dude, BEST SNUB EVER against FF9. I gotta give you serios kudos for that one.

 

[rockyiv806]

FF IV (SNES II) is the best

FF IV is clearly the best FF game ever. I have played through all of them as well. In fact just finished FF for the NES last week. Games today are ok but they lack the story telling that older games have. I dont give a **** about graphics or anything like that. It takes away from the story. FF IV had the most compelling story and by far the best character development of any FF game. Cecil, Kain, Rosa, Rydia...I mean PLEASE someone top that. FF VII was ok, but got too far away from the story. FF IX, please worst piece of garbage ever. How many times are they going to try to kill Odin? He died in VIII, so why bring him back to kill him again. The Orko comment....brilliant. As far as the linear path of XIII goes, its ok. Think about it. EVERY FF is 98% linear. The only reason it doesnt seem like it is because you get an airship to go explore to find a handful of ultimate weapons. Plus for all of those who want to complain about how linear this game, just pray to the Square gods its not a repeat of FF Mystic Quest where it had freaking arrows telling you where to go next on the overworld map.

 

[Serj22]

I've returned FFXIII and I'm glad I did. I was 10 hours into it and I still wasn't playing. Just hitting "auto battle". That was the entire game, and i hated it.

The Final Fantasies I liked:
FFI, FFIV, FFV, FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey.

 

[Ito]

Truly don't like the auto-battle system at all. It really removes all thought for me of what attacks I do. I mean, I could pick them myself, but really, because it's timer based, there is no point because auto-battle is so much faster. There is essentially no point in thinking unless you have to heal.

And yes, this game is linear, but that's not what bothers me. It's that the paths are straight and there are no towns. And really what gets me is HOW they are telling the story. Give me one main character and follow them. You don't need to make me play as snow when he is left by himself, you can tell me that in a cut scene. I guess that's the most irritating part of me is that they don't really give me one character to care about, so I end up not caring about any of them.

 

[bombarde32]

Truly don't like the auto-battle system at all. It really removes all thought for me of what attacks I do. I mean, I could pick them myself, but really, because it's timer based, there is no point because auto-battle is so much faster. There is essentially no point in thinking unless you have to heal.

And yes, this game is linear, but that's not what bothers me. It's that the paths are straight and there are no towns. And really what gets me is HOW they are telling the story. Give me one main character and follow them. You don't need to make me play as snow when he is left by himself, you can tell me that in a cut scene. I guess that's the most irritating part of me is that they don't really give me one character to care about, so I end up not caring about any of them.

It is a fair point that if you want to manage every aspect of your journey, scour towns for the best equipment, etc etc ... from what I've seen so far this isn't the game for you at all. So far though, I like the story and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that the hard battles I have to "think through" and prepare for are coming soon enough.

It's also fair to call out how they are telling the story. I like to read a lot and watch movies (go fig ) and typically you'd have sub plots and the things bounce around a bit. To me, this plays like that. Don't know if story lines will converge but I suspect they will. And actually, several friends have described the opening hours as playing a movie.

Agreed on auto-battle. I've found in most battles it doesn't matter. Although I can usually run the battle slightly faster myself. I did notice auto-battle doesn't manage your Paradigms and I'm betting later on there will be battles you have to do a lot of Paradigm management in to win. It's just a different style than old school turn based fighting (which I do enjoy A LOT).

Beween auto-battle, no healing outside battle, AI control over characters 2 & 3 ... it definetely seems the focus has swung to spotlight the story and not the mechanics that facilitate fighting. I'm just thrilled to have an enjoyable story for a change. We'll see how the battle side of it plays out over time.

Anyway - good gaming to all. Find what you like and play it up!