Final Fantasy XIII Review
Experience.
Version tested: PlayStation 3
It's tempting to portray Final Fantasy at a crossroads: stumbling, after three unusually long years, into an unfamiliar landscape of multi-platform releases and a weak Japanese gaming industry, and onto a generation of console hardware that was already middle-aged by the time the great series showed up. Role-playing games have been scattered to the four winds of American sci-fi, pocket monster hunting, genre crossover and MMOs, and you might assume that Final Fantasy needed to do something to redefine itself.
But the truth is, it was ever thus. The first Final Fantasy, made as the young Square faced bankruptcy, was born and named in a desperation that was only ironic after the fact. Since then, despite its gargantuan success, the series has treated every moment like it was its last. Every Final Fantasy - especially since its arrival on disc and in 3D with the seventh game in 1997 - has been a reinvention, telling the same old story with new characters, new worlds, new tools, new systems, and ever-greater helpings of spectacle and sentimentality. They've always been a contradiction.
In that sense, Final Fantasy XIII is no different. On one hand, it sticks closer to the strict formal rhythms and linear underpinnings of the Japanese RPG than not just the divisive Final Fantasy XII, but even many of its predecessors. But the thirteenth game is also far more innovative and forward-thinking than it's been given credit for. It's as bold and intractable, as rebellious and respectful as one of the series' angsty teen heroes.
But that's not quite the whole story. Final Fantasy XIII is different in one respect; it does have a manifesto for the strange new world it finds itself in. And it's one a lot of fans of the series might not like.

In-game cut-scenes mesh surprisingly well with Square's blockbuster CG. This is a stunning-looking game, especially the character models.
It is absolutely, ruthlessly, single-mindedly populist. It's stripped down, streamlined and simplified to the extreme. Its features are spoon-fed so slowly it's excruciating, even as the pace of the battles is amped up to be as fast and flashy as possible. It is a My First Final Fantasy, promoted with power ballads, and all that implies.
This agenda results in both awkward weaknesses and stunning strengths, but you have to respect the intention: to toss out all the decades-old clutter of the JRPG form, distil the Final Fantasy experience to its very core, and then make that as relevant, approachable and slickly modern as possible.
So, you don't get an overall character level and you don't have to wait for new skills; you just buy advancement from the menu when you see fit. Health is instantly replenished after every battle and there's no mana or other resource to worry about. Equipment slots are few, options limited, depth sparing and mostly optional.
You don't get direct control of more than one character at a time and input, if you want to, can be automated to the extent that it's more like tapping out morse code on the action button than selecting from menus. There's no downtime in towns for trading and tinkering, with functional services - shopping and a rather undernourished system of equipment upgrades - available from the very frequent save points.

Every single Paradigm permutation has a pithy, memorable title. This is a great localisation job.
Until halfway through the story - and that's some 20 or 25 hours in, treble the length of many of the action blockbusters Final Fantasy XIII has modelled itself on - you don't even get to choose the composition of your party, or where you go and what you do next. There's no world map, and for the first half there's no element of choice or exploration at all. There is absolutely nothing to distract you from whatever the game wants to throw at you next - the next lush, twinkling vista, melodramatic cut-scene or punchy scrap. It's the RPG equivalent of a corridor shooter.
Does that sound like a nightmare to you? It's worth pointing out that this one-way crawl punctuated with battles has always been the meat of Final Fantasy, with the world map acting as an elaborate but limited graphical menu in most games - Final Fantasy XII was the closest to being open-world, and even then just barely. It's the illusion of choice and exploration that's been removed - although that is an important illusion, and XIII has lost a measure of excitement and romance as a result.
Square Enix's developers would also argue that if it's good enough for Modern Warfare or God of War, it's good enough for Final Fantasy, and to some extent they'd have a point. When Final Fantasy XIII is at its best - when the simple tactical brilliance and snappy, intoxicating pace of the battle system asserts itself; when the storyboard is shovelling breathtaking, colour-soaked vistas, inconceivable monsters and sumptuous video at you faster than you take it in - the last thing you have on your mind is wandering off a path that's not been beaten so much as carpeted in gold leaf.
But it isn't always at that best. There are one or two drab environs crammed with too many samey encounters, and what's worse, these come early in the game when you're existing on a gameplay diet that is thin indeed, with only the most basic features available. Bizarrely, there are also impractically lavish locations in which there is nothing to do but wander around and listen to the insane number of audio soundbites provided for a milling cast of thousands. All it takes is for the pacing to be a little off for that gilded path to become a gilded cage, and the few avenues of interaction open to you to feel claustrophobically narrow.
Pacing, in fact, is everything that's right and wrong with Final Fantasy XIII. In terms of the locations, the story, the character advancement and the unfolding of the game's systems, it's best described as a lumpy crescendo, with painful longeurs at the start gradually, oh so gradually, giving way to satisfying pay-offs.

Beefcake Snow (centre) and chirpy Vanille (right) could grate parmesan. Lightning, left, has the least convincing inspirational speech though.
The first half is spent in the appropriately named sky-world Cocoon, a rich but oppressive society and the most aggressively futuristic, science-fiction milieu yet for Final Fantasy. The barbaric otherworld of Pulse is spoken of with fear, and anyone who comes into contact with it - which includes all our heroes - is "purged". At the game's midpoint, you reach Pulse - a world of natural wilderness, dinosaurs and creaking steampunk tech - and the contrast isn't just stylistic. It coincides with the game finally offering up an open play-field and the option of taking time off from the main story to do some questing, exploration or even grinding.
The effect is so dramatic, so deliberate and so carefully metaphorical that it goes a long way towards justifying the long, long wait. In fact, it even overstates the charms of Pulse somewhat - it's a beguiling place and a glorious change of pace, but it won't be that long before you're back on the hamster-wheel of story, and secretly not minding that much at all.
That story concerns a bunch of Cocoon misfits who, for various and mysterious personal reasons, end up in contact with a fal'Cie - one of this world's demigods - from Pulse. This makes them l'Cie - magic-wielding agents of the gods - and enemies of their own world, Cocoon (or so it seems). It's typically soapy nonsense, and it has to be said that the basic, gauche lines of dialogue don't come across nearly so well in fully-voiced cinematic presentation as they used to in little blue text boxes with some dots and exclamation marks at the end.

This summon actually turns into a racing car. They went there.
That said, the way the characters' intersecting stories are revealed in flashback is artful, the thumping twists and revelations arrive with appropriate force, and the CG action scenes are dependably jawdropping. The cast isn't the most charming in Final Fantasy history - Tetsuya Nomura's character designs seem calculating and stereotyped, if unimpeachably good-looking - so it's all the more surprising to feel genuine affection developing for most of them over the course of the game, from stiff military poster-girl Lightning to blaxploitation refugee Sazh - even the standard-issue simpering JRPG moppet Hope turns likeable. The English (well, American and Australian) voice cast mostly do a great job with what they have to deliver.
The storyline has an obsession with pairing them off with each other during the early stages, which might help define the characters but has an unfortunate ramification for gameplay. Although each character can ultimately learn any of the game's six classes, they're initially limited in what they can do, and some pairings work better than others (Sazh and sweet-girl-with-a-secret Vanille give good odd couple in the cut-scenes but have no chemistry on the battlefield). The excellent battle system is designed for a trio and needs three to really sing, but opportunities to experience that before the magic halfway mark are scarce. It's one of several examples of Final Fantasy XIII being so careful not to overwhelm the player that it underwhelms instead.
The character advancement is another. This is done by spending Combat Points earned from each battle in an absurdly over-produced and nonsensical 3D talent tree called the Crystarium. This unwieldy beast allows you to buy skills and stat boosts whenever you like and on a set path for each character with some very limited branching.
A less flashy presentation allowing you to see more of the tree would have been much more useful, as it's actually rather limited and the stat distribution is rather odd. It's also strange to have to remember to go into the menu and level up. But the freedom and more organic character progression make a nice change, and the options you do have - creating a jack of all trades or master of some - tie in beautifully with the battle system's structure.
Which brings me to Final Fantasy XIII's star attraction, and the one area where its pacing is thrilling and perfect. Its all-new version of the series' Active Time Battle (ATB) system has been controversial, and initially seems worryingly basic. It takes a few hours to reveal its true colours; in the end it turns out to be radical, ingenious, elegant and exciting to use. That's thanks to a great suite of character classes, the system of chaining attacks and 'staggering' enemies, and something called Paradigm Shift.
On the face of it, you only have control of one character, the party leader; you can select role-specific abilities for the leader to use each turn according to how many slots they use in that character's ATB bar, which grows as you progress through the game. In actuality, you'll rarely be doing even that. Much of the time, you'll pick a role for your leader and use the "auto-battle" command, letting the game do the rest. This effectively relegates them to the same level as the AI party members (which is very smart, provided you use Libra to study your enemies' strengths and weaknesses first).

Efficient battle performance earns you star ratings and TP to spend on summons and other Techniques.
Why would you do that? Because the fun is all in setting up Paradigms - permutations of two or three of the six roles - and swapping between these instantly and frequently to suit the situation. It actually represents similar thinking to Final Fantasy XII's wonderful Gambit system - in that it allows you to automate the behaviour of your party and wield several characters as one, in real time, without turns - only instead of being based on back-end tinkering, it's about direct input and quick responses on the fly.
The roles are Medic, Ravager (magic damage), Commando (physical damage), Sentinel (protection or "tanking"), Synergist (buffs) and Saboteur (debuffs). They all interact with each other and the enemy designs, and combinations of enemies, in interesting ways. Also, every enemy has a Chain gauge which can be filled by balancing magic and physical damage, increasing in effectiveness all the time and when filled, 'staggering' the enemy for huge damage multipliers. It's essential (not to mention immensely gratifying) to use Stagger to get through fights efficiently, but it's always an edge-of-seat challenge to balance it with switching your party between different utilities.
To be fair, Paradigm Shift and Stagger are actually more interesting in combination with groups of moderately tough enemies than in the thoughtful but rather gruelling boss fights. Nor do they sit that well with XIII's other battlefield innovation, Gestalt Mode, a sort of QTE affair that allows you to pull off showboating attacks in tandem with the visually astonishing Eidolon summons (which look like Transformers designed by Gaudi). Gestalt is amusing but doesn't quite offer the massive-damage pay-off to match a well-executed Paradigm strategy.

Part Covenant Elite, part butterfly, part fifties hot rod, all monster. FFXIII's enemy design is as fabulously bonkers as ever.
Still, Final Fantasy XIII's is a superb system overall, easily making up what depth it has lost in speed, tactical cunning and moment-to-moment engagement. Some have bemoaned the apparent retreat from XII's daring reinvention - I did myself, at first - but in its way XIII is just as big a step for the party RPG, albeit a simpler and perhaps more palatable one.
Palatable is very much the word for Final Fantasy XIII. The Final Fantasy series, with its lengthy cinematics, stubborn style and carefully prescribed limitations, can never hope to please everyone. So it's strange to see it try, and no surprise that the result is not a total success. It's cautious, narrow, far too slow to get going, and is stripped down to such a bare naked form that even some FF traditionalists might find it off-putting.
What's left, though, is faultlessly accomplished, gorgeous to behold and, in the long run, thoroughly enjoyable. For better or worse, it's another new beginning, and that's one Final Fantasy tradition that should never be changed.
8 / 10
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Comments (179) 1 year ago
Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!
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Typical safe score for a big title.
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Because it hasn't changed in 13 fucking years!
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I enjoyed the review as I think it does well in describing what to expect whilst trying to look for positives rather than spending too much time comparing it to what has gone before.
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Well, from the reading the intro and conclusion - I don't want to spoil any surprises - it sounds bloody good to me. I never had the pleasure of a PS2, so this will be my first Final Fantasy since PS1 days. I'm too impatient though, there must be an indie shop selling it today somewhere!
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I guess us old-school fans have to stick to the PS1-era or Shin Megami Tensei games to play good ol' fashioned JPRGs.
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Oddly, even though the scores it's getting are not quite as good as its predecessors, this is probably the FF game I'm more excited about in recent years. Heck, maybe it's the one I'm more excited about period. Being my favorite genre, I've played lots of RPGs and it's becoming increasingly difficult to find something that actually surprises me. So I began to pick up titles that weren't all that good but bent the rules a little, stuff like Ar Tonelico and Steambot Chronicles. And while those are far from being the best RPGs I've ever played, I'm really glad I did.
And it's with that mindset that I'll give this a try. Even if I don't find it all that remarkable, I'm sure I'll enjoy it. Nice review.
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Oh yeah! Completely missed that in my excitement of seeing the review. Cheers!
Edit: And after reading only the first few paragraphs I already take back my earlier optimism! I know the odds were against the 360 with this game, but thought it'd come out better than that.
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The disappointing thing is that the more I have heard about the game, the more annoyed I have become. It seems they have paired back all the things I enjoy about RPG's and removed/severely cut back on them. I like exploration, I like towns, I like talking to completely irrelavent NPC's, I like sidequests and I like to explore.
If anything, I would have preferred them to cut back on the battle system, because this is probably the least enjoyable aspect of a JRPG for me.
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Good for them.
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Got to complete Heavy Rain quickly before it comes.
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Oh wait, I love linear games
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I can live with that.
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You, sir, are a moron.
Just face the reality: Final Fantasy hasn't been the pinnacle of RPGs for years, and has ALWAYS been linear. If you think that the xbox can't handle non-linear, open-world games than please explain Borderlands, Fallout, Oblivion, GTA 4, Crackdown, etc etc etc.
Stop talking such utter shite.
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Stop being such a noob. Digital Foundry has already shown that the differences between the two are minimal. The only appreciable difference is that the cutscenes are in a slightly higher resolution on the PS3.
Oh, and for the morons saying it was crippled for DVD, please explain the fact that when you strip out the CGI, the actual game data is only 6gb?
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1080p x 560p (CGI)
720p x 560p (in game graphics)
just to name a few all deserve the same score yeh right!
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Exactly, 360 holding us back innit
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If that sort of stuff doesn't bother you then I envy you, it jars me when I notice it and anything stopping me thinking about whats happening in the cutscene/plot is bad thing. Saying that though, if I didn't have both systems, it wouldn't stop me getting it for the 360!
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So you shouldn't be complaining, you should be happy! The fact that it's going to come out on 360 too means that it'll sell more copies, and SE will get to make more games! Or do you not understand the concept of business?
As for the game itself, just like many other people here have said, this one's gonna have to wait, I've got far too much on the go right now game-wise!
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It's the GAMEPLAY that counts, you noob. You can have the best graphics in the world, but unless you have interesting, original game mechanics to back them up, the end result simply won't be brilliant. And as the review points out, it takes over 25 hours before the game gets interesting, the character progression is shallow, the story is nonsense and by stripping out much of what makes RPGs interesting they have moved the genre backwards rather than forwards.
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You're trying too hard
The review has sold me on it, having never played a FF game before this shall be my first!
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The game has like 100 hours of cutscenes, so it makes a huge difference. 360 version is more like a 5 tbh.
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It seems pretty evident that it is still an 8/10 game regardless of which version you buy. The PS3 versions turns out to be the superior version, but they're both the same basic game, so it's an 8/10 all round. It seems pretty straightforward to me.
Honestly, if anyone wants to start throwing the blame about with regard to the quality of the port, throw it at SquareEnix.
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Indeed. It's not the 360's fault that SE seem petrified of making "HD towns" (omg, no dev has managed that before eh?) and other stuff that could have brought this game above 8/10.
Blame MS and the 360 all you want, but basically, as we've seem with SE's other RPGs this gen (seriously, name me an awesome RPG this gen by SE?), it seems as if their skills were somewhat suited more to a time when we had more limited hardware, as sad as that may be.
I'll still be buying the PS3 version though, not because it's far superior to the 360 version, but it is FF ffs, seems almost like a duty
@ecureuil : look at the screens, you're a blatent fanboy - end of. Seems like you're one of those people that cried for 3 hours after MS did the reveal at E3.
Your opinion is rubbished by many open world games that the 360 was perfectly capable of running. Just face it, FF XIII is an 8/10 because SE don't really know how to develop for this gen anywhere near as well as they did for the last gen.
SE should go to a Bioware lecture about having a clue about developing environments for this gen, i know all the anime-lovers will flame the s**t out of me for saying that, but i really couldn't give a crap
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Are you seriously suggesting that the quality of a cutscene should have an impact on the overall score?
You truly are an utter noob. Aren't you up past your bedtime?
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Obviously when this was first revealed, I was hugely excited. The prospect of marrying FF gameplay with next gen visuals was a mouth watering prospect, probably THE RPG we had all been waiting for.
The disappointing thing is that the more I have heard about the game, the more annoyed I have become. It seems they have paired back all the things I enjoy about RPG's and removed/severely cut back on them. I like exploration, I like towns, I like talking to completely irrelavent NPC's, I like sidequests and I like to explore.
If anything, I would have preferred them to cut back on the battle system, because this is probably the least enjoyable aspect of a JRPG for me.
definitely agree with this, menu driven battles have always been my least favourite aspect of rpg's, i play for the story, the characters, the music, to immerse myself in the world, exploration, sidequests and all that jazz. The battles are just a necessary evil i need to grind (such an appropriate word) through to get back to the story...
I'm not saying battles should be cut out completely, but how about, instead of grinding, just have vahve big storyline battles, and better yet, make them as good as srpg's like Valkyria Chronicles or Fire Emblem, that way battles can be fun, and a challenge can still be maintained
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Possibly give it a go but don't want to waste 60 hours of my life hitting a few buttons to watch a pretty film unfold without any real input from me.
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Blu-ray x 3 DVDs
1080p x 560p (CGI)
720p x 560p (in game graphics)
just to name a few all deserve the same score yeh right!
Yet he probably plays on his 26 inch budget LCD his mummy and daddy got him for his bedroom that wont even support full 1080p
Yet i bet
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Which translates as what, "very good"? Only "very good", what a waste.
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Reviews are a buyers guide not a buyers bible.
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They're like clock work toys; wind 'em up and watch them go.
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Telling because the more I read about, and see stuff from Crystal Bearers, the more it seems that's the one still carrying the sense of wonder and adventure that had always been a part of the series. When Square released the first of the series, it was a matter of survival; so is FFXIII. Except Square, even facing bankruptcy, dared enough to convert people. The same that now impose a tyranny of expectation. That's what FFXIII is, really: proof that your expectations would always get the better of you. Proof that the company's survival is damned by "fans", who are more of a stone around their necks than anything else. No wonder Crystal Bearers could sidestep expectations - when people call it "inferior", a "spin off" and "not as fully realized as an FF title", they're showcasing nothing but contempt for Square's last cries of criativity and risk.
Some people deserve the games they get.
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No game has been interesting enouugh for me to buy anything so far this year and this won't change that, never could get into any of the FF games.
But an 8 is a solid score, still trying to figure out when it became the new 4. Remember folks 5 IS AVERAGE. Any thing above that is somewhat good, getting better the closer you get 10
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OK there is no real difference betweem the 360 version and the PS3 one, that's good to hear. But I this I will go for the PS3 version as the controller does't flare up the RSI the way the 360's does!
PS I happy it's on both consoles, hence securing future development for this expensive series.
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I'll definitely get it down the line though - I never played a Final Fantasy game before since I was PC only for so long - but I really want to experience it at some point.
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Yeah that might be true in light of the review scoring policy around here but the human/gamer psyche just doesn't register it as such. Caused by years of inflated review scores and it isn't in line with school grades either. IMHO it's very silly to try and keep fighting that.
I'd prefer not to have review scores at all but as that's probably a step too far given the average gamer's intellect, a 5 point scale would already be a step in the right direction.
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So, my brother can't wait to play the game...in the meantime I will be finishing FFVI Advance, while waiting for my copy of GoW3 to arrive (and hoping that he will have finished FFXIII until then).
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Awesome quote from the review and describes how I feel about the generalisation of videogames to tailor to a broad audience, instead of trying to make the game amazing so a broad audience would want it.
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Because whenever you feel the need to display your games' library to someone, you have to make sure that EVERY single title you own, has actually been awared a 90 plus average on metacritic. That's the law of the land these days... Anyway, back to gaming.
* goes to play Dante's Inferno *
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Tho as for FF13, grabbing collectors edition day 1, and i am sure it will be great to play regardles of it flaws....
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Something which the likes of Halo, COD and other franchises should take serious note of. Its all well and good building on what's gone before and simply refining, but it takes a huge amount of bravery to do what FF has done with every game.
I lost interest in Halo after Halo 2, because its always just been more of the same with punchier visuals. The same happened with MW2. I gave up after a couple of weeks, as it was just more of the same as MW1.
If every franchise took this approach (I'm looking at you, Fable and NFS!) imagine the possibilities.
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Do you have any idea how nonsensical this statement is? The very essence of the review states that every new FF is a shift in delivery. There is no 'FF' standard to which you allude.
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Oh, no wait, I decided to ignore his trolling idiotic rants a long time ago. The little boy is a pure fanboy. At least he's good at something though - small mindedness.
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Getting pretty fed up of every game trying to appeal to the broadest market possible to the detriment of the game. What's wrong with doing for a specific group of people who like a more hardcore JRPG?
And with Emmit, at the moment several developers could take note of Squares approach to FF. I have bought Modern Wardware 2 or Halo ODST? Why, cause they are the same as the two or three games that came before it in the series. And I sure as hell won't buy the next ones if they following the same tried, tested and boring formula.
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One part of me is more than willing to take the plunge on the name alone (is/was admittedly an FF fan boy), yet I can see myself playing to about 30 hours in, just like I did with FFXII and then say 'this isn't Final Fantasy' and switch off.
I understand change is good, especially innovation. But what won me over every time up until, well, 10 at a push, was that they kept the base of their IP that everyone loved, and added new stuff on top. This to me seems as if that rather than giving it a few mods and a paintjob, they've completely dismantled the engine and turned it into something different.
Argh, I guess I just need to play it.
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How about we make Eurogamer Comments, The Game. Seriously it's a rollercoaster ride full of fighting and back biting, it would make for a great game.
As to FF 1050 (or what ever where up to now) their all the same game, they just look prettier as time moves on. I'll wait for GOW III
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I thought I would hate FF12 as it was a dramatic change of style but I loved it and put over 100 hours into it and I have still not completed the main story yet. I am beginning to think it will be the same with this game to.
I will miss the towns and juggling my money about to buy better equipment when skint.
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But the game is missing so much of what makes RPGs FUN, like exploration, character interaction etc. It took me about 60 hours to finish it for the first time, at least 10 of those spent grinding combat points.
I'll probably go back to the game in some months to grind towards my Platinum trophy. I mean, the game is good; it's just not what I expected.
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*edit* And I get it's a whole 'shift' in combat system, I'd rather just get a feel for an approximation towards the turn-based setup of groups or annoying button mashing.
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I feel bad for you having such messed up priorities.
Buying a game isn't giving to charity - I suggest that you have enough money to do both.
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FF1 to 9 (and many aspects of 10) had a very similar template (the JRPG standard pretty much), strong narative, similar turn based battle system, random battles, world maps to wander around on, hidden stuff/characters that rewarded exploration etc etc. Square didn't try to reinvent the wheel with every game. While I completed and enjoyed FFX, FF12 was a monstrosity that bared little resemblance to a FF game. From reading EG's review, FF13 seems to reject even more of what, to me, made FF (and JRPG's in general) great.
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Xbox v PS3 aside - can someone tell me the actual game isn't as cringeworthy as the overwrought, teen-emotional, melodramatic trailers I've watched?
What you really mean to say is, can someone tell me that it's not some emo shit
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For example, MGS4 got a 8 here and I enjoyed it immensely.
With that said, excellent review, 'twas a good read.
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"can someone tell me the actual game isn't as cringeworthy as the overwrought, teen-emotional, melodramatic trailers I've watched?"
What . . . as opposed to all the other FF games that were grounded, unmelodramatic and emotionally subtle and mature?
Just kidding!! Glad the FF fans get what appears to be a pretty good game. This doesn't rub me one way or another -- I've played 7 and 10 but just didn't get what the big deal was about the series, but then again I'm not much for JRPGs overall.
Still, Given how many people have been looking forward to this (and pretty much anything with FF on the cover), I'm glad it's good.
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might give this a try...bu oh lord...im not sure i can leave bad company 2 that fast
@Physically_Insane:
please..just jump down a bridge...please....
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And while COD and such are linear even the first wasn't more than a twelve hour game. Which is the thing, I'm willing to put 60-70 hours into a open game or 40 into something like Mass Effect 2 but with total linearity and no nostalgia (I replayed VII last year) anything over 30 hours is really pushing it.
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I'm currently playing Heavy Rain and have dipped into Ass Creed 2 finally.
Having just ordered Darksiders and an import copy of Demon Souls... and God of War 3 coming soon... and the fact im still raiding 2 nights a week in WoW...
no fucking way i'll have time to do this game justice this side of march at least
I would have made an exception for a FF game, but the review makes me less excited tbh.
will play it eventually.
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I bought an xbox and a PC because i liked other kind of games. Does anyone think that this games carry nothing but a nonsensical plot and backstory and some cliched characters?
I have Tried JRPGs but i have enjoyed few. I'll get back to my cave, waiting for The Witcher 2 to be released.
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Anyway, Shopto took the cash from my bank for the pre order today so I've got it coming now !
One thing I will say.
Bring back Final Fantasy 12 for the next one please Squaresoft.
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The review reads ok as an 8 too.
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Oh well, at least it will be forgotten in a few months time. And then it's back to the mouth breathing begging for a FFVII remake again.
The future looks bleak.
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Sounds like it has its faults, but a five.
With this and the Dragon age review (both tested on the Xbox by the way) Edge really seems to have lost the plot of late.
EG seems closer to my way of thinking these days.
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I hate open world rpg's, couldn't play the last FF game as all I wanted was the storyline.
If you were watching a film and it paused itself and wouldn't restart until you'd completed a pointless task over and over and over, would you continue?
I like rpg's to be on the rails and storyline driven. So I may get this one even given that the last FF I found dissapointing
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people always, always manage to quote Edge wrong re testing which version, their review says quite clearly they tested the PS3 version of the game, and they are about the only magazine who are always clear on which version they review.
I can understand people not liking their score, but they are always give clear information on platform
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Edit - Looking above, it seems quite a few other liked FF XII as well, so, maybe not just me eh? If only Squenix had the courage of their convictions, there was a good gameplay foundation in that game which they just threw away...
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Edge's review is silly and sensationalist. They say that the battle system is "among the genre's finest" (which it is) and then give it 5/10. This is a 25-year-old, massively saturated genre we're talking about! Would an FPS with combat among the genre's finest ever get a 5/10? I don't think so.
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Also loved FF XII.
Hated FF X, so maybe this game isn't for me. Will still pick it up and play it one day, but right now I've other priorities.
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And you can pick it up for about a tenner too! Problem solved.
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Maybe I've just played too many of them by now, having played 1-12. Got a preorder on resonance of fate, look forward to the unusual combat and tetris style unlocking of new areas shaking things up a bit. i'll probably get this eventually, don't get me wrong, but I can't seem to muster the enthusiasm for a simplified, linear experience. For me the stories have never been that strong (maybe with the exception of 6 or 7) , usually poorly translated/voiced, so it's not enough for me to force myself through 25 hours of boredom (and I haven't found a review yet which doesn't describe the opening as something like that).
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My mistake, Edge did test the PS3 version. They did however test Dragon Age Origins on the Xbox 360 in their Christmas Edition and gave it a 5 (when the PC version was clearly superior).
Obvously I do like Edge as I have been buying it for the last 10 years but I would say their reviews scores are out of synch with mine.
Without wanting to harp on about the "score at the end" the Edge review reads about the same as the EG review and yet it only gets a 5 compared to 8 on EG.
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perhaps...personally i liked Borderlands a LOT more than the 6 Edge gave it. However, it's good that they don't just slap everything with a 7 like a lot of magazines...you can clearly tell whether they liked it or not, and that is good.
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I'm surprised to be underwhelmed by FFXIII's graphics in game, though. The cutscenes - per the screenshots - are possibly the nicest I've ever seen, but the game engine looks a little dull. That's just looks, though. Jury's still out on gameplay.
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like a mensurating woman pushed off a cliff..
breaks the flow..
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^_^ rly?
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Can't wait, but I'll miss all the faffing about in shops and towns.
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10/10 for me
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"back when I played FF7 I was young enough to enjoy the teen angst!"
In all honesty, I think you may be right.
I played 7 after I was in my late 20s, so when I Seripoth killed Areth or whatever her name was I had already lived thru the death of people close to me. Rather than being emotionally traumatized, I was bored. Well, to be totally honest, I was glad -- she got on my nerves about 5 minutes after meeting her and it never got bette so her dying was a bit of a blessing.
Its the same for Mario and Zelda. I played them well into my 30s, so they were just another platformer and dungeon crawler. Fun? Yes. Standout examples of the genre? They were certainly good games, no question. But I don't give a hairy damn about Mario or Link as characters. There's no emotional "hook" with the name for me. That's why things like Smash Bros. just mystify me:
"Its awesome! You can have Mario fight Link!!"
" . . . so? How is that different than having Ken fight Ryu? In a better fighting engine no less."
"Dude, you're not listening -- I said you can have MARIO fight LINK!!"
They wern't part of my formative years . . . so they are just character models to me.
I came to FF after trying several JRPGS and disliking them, so when I played 7 all I could think was "yep . . . its a JRPG all right". I appreciate on an intellectual level that it was one of the progenitors for the entire genre, and how influential and relevant the genre has been to the history of video games, but aside from that there isn't any emotional resonance.
Now, all I have to do is hear the sound of an incoming missle from Battlezone and I get goosebumps. Show me those green vector lines and I squeal like a little girl. If however you didn't cut class to sneak down to the local arcade to play it and today is the first time you try it out . . . it really does suck.
Microsoft got me with that rose-colored nostalgia with their early XBLA releases. Dig-Dug, Time Pilot . . . these were the greatest!! After buying them and excitedly sitting down to get that magic back, I found out that they wern't as good as my 13-year old self remembered.
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NO. Jesus, I wish people would stop saying this. When I walk out onto a world map, and I can walk all over the place and there's like three or four towns or dungeons and little corners and secrets to discover, even if I'm officially supposed to go in this or that direction, that's not linear. I don't care about peoples nonsense simplifications where everything is linear if you have a single ultimate goal regardless of how explorable and expansive your surroundings are. FF has never been strictly linear, that is until FFX came along and reduced the series, nay, the entire jrpg genre to a pathetic shadow of its former self.
Battles were only the "meat" of the series in the sense that jumping is the meat of Mario. What happened with FFX (and apparently, FFXIII) was akin to making Mario into a single-button game that scrolls along and all you get to do is jump at the appropriate time.
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I am drunk BUT...to prove im drunk anyway, i'd never type this sober
Poo bum wee gay erection turd fart homo piss poo
believe me now?
Okay, I miss the feeling of final fantasy 8....when you start playing and you think....This game is bigger than me...but Im gonna bloody get stuck in and try my best in this strange world...little old me (and friends) against the world, I miss that probably wont get it again, miss 6..miss 7...miss 8......fuck the rest, they're great....but not superb like the ones stated, fuck you, fuck me...fuck fuck.
goodnight
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As an experienced FF player, I've always found the towns and side quests a bit of an annoying distraction that I nevertheless felt compelled to explore. Just give me a good story, point me in the right direction and give me plenty of stupid-good CGI for my lustful eyes... = One happy bunny.
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Boom in her midgar, I despited her illusion.
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Reading the review I can't help but feel that if this game hadn't been called FF, it would have scored much lower.
edit: spelling
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Thanks for your info. I've completed IV, VII, VIII, IX, X and X-2. Have played XII for 30 hours and then lost my saved games and just couldn't start over again. I also love the Tactics games. But for some reason XIII just doesn't connect with me. It might be the lack of a true world map. Or maybe Atlus showing that you can release great JRPGs with distinct characters without super-sized budgets.
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It's one of my fave FF battle systems, just remember you dont control every action you control the bigger picture, the ebb and flow of the battle.
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I've lived in Japan for a couple of months.. NOBODY talks like that. It's horribly stilted, overly theatrical cartoon speech what you encounter in games and anime. It's how people talk in Kabuki theaters, when they've just inhaled helium. There's absolutely nothing good or believable about Japanese voice dubs.
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I've heard that while a lot of parts of this game sound awful on paper they work quite well in practice (lack of a world map / towns).
The only consistent criticism I've heard is that it takes way too long to get going. (the combat system).
I'm kind of reluctant to find out for myself though since I spent 40ish hours waiting for FF12 to get going and it never did.
(To be clear it was just the pacing that killed the game for me).
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i admit i was going to buy, and did buy this regardless of review scores as ive played and loved every FF game since 7. i agree with the people who say tht this game would have got a much lower score if it wasnt final fantasy in the title. prince of persia had more, and better gameplay than this so in tht respect this shud be scored lower at 5. but since the production valued are thru the roof ill be generous and award it a 6/10.
to any FF fans, i strongly advise u to hold off for a price drop in order to avoid disappointment. i know most ppl will buy it anyway based on its history, but honestly, this is far more a movie than the metal gear solid games ever were. a true dissappointment with a big sad smiley face
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However stick with it. Its funny a lot of complaints about this are about the majority of woes with MGS4, but that was still a tremendious game!
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Give it a chance.
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I'm hoping this distilled version will have a lasting appeal to me (should be coming in the mail soon). I never really got into raising chocobos, or playing that weird underwater ball game in FFX. So, I'm not really lamenting the loss of those kinds of extras. Not in this Final Fantasy anyway. I'm hoping it's as fun as reviewers are making it out to be though. We'll see.
(btw. Skies of Arcadia is my fav RPG of all time. A lot of random battles, but enough story, exploration, and variety to warm my heart.)
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5/10
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Like Biker_Bob I don't agree with that at all. Most FFs gripped me from the start. VII, VIII and X definitely did and I think IX must have done it as well as I started playing that when PS2 was already two years out so I definitely wasn't in there for the graphics.
XII I liked less story-wise. But that's probably got a lot to do with the way I play games (in short bursts over long time periods).
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As a long running fan of FF games I love it personally, the only game I couldn't get on with was FFXII, now that was boring!
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I got about 3 / 4 hours in last night, and I wouldn't call it boring or dull at all. (to contradict my own earlier statements before i played it!)
I really enjoyed X, and I really enjoyed VIII. I personally didn't like VII that much (from what I remember, in fact I bet most people who sing the heavens with VII can't even remember what it was really like - tinted glasses).
I know I'm only a short way in, but "weak story"? Its one of the most well layed out story's I've seen for AGESS for people who bother to read the data files. And poor movie quality? Are you joking? I don't know what you've been playing but the graphics have been great... I think your trying to play the "cool to hate & I'm a game snob for the sake of it" cards.
I'll give you the irritating characters (at least two of them) I found the rest of the cast to be pretty solid. Your always going to get stereotypes, because thats what characters are! Its how you define whos good at what and their back story!
I'll be the first to admit its not for everyone... but is any game? I'm enjoying it, your not. Simple as that, but theres no reason to go around slatting it unfairly just because you don't like it. Theres plenty more games out there. I think you just enjoy the conflict and told yourself you wouldn't like it before you even got it. Stop being so purist.
Edit :
I see you've put Lost Odyssey as a game that gripped you. Thats quite interesting because that game is equally as linear, and equally as slow to get going as FFXIII.... And had more than its fair share of irritating characters (those bloody kids!)
I'm not berating it, I really enjoyed it, but its odd that you have opposing views on such similar games.
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erm if u read my comment im actually not thinking im cool to hate. neither am i a gaming snob. in fact i have one of the most diverse gaming libraries which range from the mega drive and snes era upto now. thts what, 2 decades worth? ive played enough games to know whats good and whats not and ive certainly played alot of FF games in tht time.. like u, i expressed my opinion, and as a long standing FF fan, i have a right to, like every other gamer. but not once did i make out my opinion to be elitist or tht im 'slating' a game because people think its cool. simple fact is, and this applies to ANY game out there - if it holds ur hand and bores u to death for 20 hours before letting u in then its failed. i dnt care what name the game has. if god of war 3, gears of war 3 or evn the next mass effect ends up being shit i will never let a series buy me with jus its name. pro evolution soccer is the perfect example in tht i was a big fan for just over a decade. i made the switch to fifa because its BETTER. in the same way, the latest final fantasy is not as good as previous ones. in my opinion, it is boring, and even a good battle system can only take u so far.
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Hardcore Fans of not only Final Fantasy but RPGS in general all share a basic understanding that Final Fantasy is one of the last Elite RPG titled series out there and with launch day approaching...
Maybe this is how it went for you... you feel relieved almost refreshed and prepare by heading out to the store to get some snacks and maybe some pop to keep your eyes from slamming shut later because you don't want to miss anything, obviously anticipating that you'll be playing this all night.you go and pick up the game as quickly as possible its now 12:01. You finally have the game in your hand and your home its now 12:02
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First of I would say so far I like it. I'm a long time fan of FF and my favorite is VII (yes
I agree with one previous comment about FF's being linear on the whole being BS though. It is simplification - they aren't linear as the world map allows you to go anywhere and do anything, saying it's linear just because certain places on that map progress the story is ridiculous. Even if it is an "illusion" that doesn't make it have any less of an impact as human beings are easily fooled.
Also, Lost Odyssey was not as linear as this game, it had a world map which automatically makes that untrue. I know XIII opens up later on, but when you're caged for 20 hours that had to be taken into account as well.
Now don't get me wrong, as I said I'm enjoying this, but it is quite different and more restrictive than previous FF's from what I've played so far.
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I deliberately avoided all reviews and have spent the last 12 months with my hands over my ears going blah blah blah hoping to hear nothing about this game because I was always going to buy and always going to love it...until I played it.
I put in 4 hours and went...huh then read the reviews and these messages then put in another 4 hours and after 8 hours its the same lifeless boring dull character-less disappointment. someone said earlier that he played 20 hours and now has access to everything and thats just stupid. That means I have to put in another 12 hrs to get to the goods? Even if that is true its simply not worth it! I think its time to accept that either FF series has changed for the worse or my gaming tastes have changed but I would much rather put 70 hours into Dragon age or fallout or oblivion and get the full pay off of the game within an hour of playing. Trade this in and get god of war and just pretend the final fantasy series ended on a high with tidus and get on with life!
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Which is a bit like saying that Attack of the Clones was a great movie for people who read all the books. Nobody cares about the fucking data files. With the budget FFXIII has, there's every reason to expect that the story should work and engage without having to trudge through boring data files. The whole idea should have died with Mass Effect.
Other than that, though, I really love the game.
<em>"Also, Lost Odyssey was not as linear as this game, it had a world map which automatically makes that untrue."</em>
I did nothing but proceed along the obvious path for the entire first disc of Lost Odyssey, so I can't say I get what you're trying to say.
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Don't get me wrong... graphics, story, sound, etc. all very nice and lovely... but...
There's no engagement with the environments at all - it's literally run down a nicely presented corridor, stop to have a fight, run a bit more, stop to fight... rinse and repeat..
I'm determined to get to that elusive 25 hour-mark where it 'opens up' - but games shouldn't be this painful to get through (especially considering it's only the first 'half')
My last FF was X - and I loved every aspect of it... and I do love this... but be warned... you really really really have to invest time in this game - and it could be argued that it isn't worth it...
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It's true the liner corridor thing is the most restricted of any FF yet, The combat systems still feels vague, and don't get me started on the restricted levelling up.
But it's not with out it's charms.... the story is very typical but I still find it engaging, most of the Cut scenes amazing, and I still get a that tingle when the boss music starts...... something I only get from Final Fantasy Games!
I enjoy it more playing in short bursts....... The last FF I had played was X and played nothing else from start to finish in between. This i can play after a session of Halo for about half an hour before bed..... It's like a book!
I'm cracking on with it smiling.... and reserving judgement till then.... but so far it's a 8/10 for me!
Whatever your view on Edge Mags 5/10 was ridiculous and think it was only done to get us looking, talking and buying about "That" review.... Very clever really!
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Fighting is fun. But I ended up using auto because it is to fast for me to choose a specific action. Just make sure to use libra first if you fight a previously unknown enemy so your character can use appropriate techniques.
Fighting in FFXIII for me ended up being managing paradigm, not managing individual action. I miss town, I miss shops like you get in traditional JRPG.
Do I enjoy FFXIII? yes. But I would not play it again when I finish it. Why because I simply refuse to play chapter 1 - 9 again. I already know the story and there is no alternative path for me to explore for the 2nd time.
So I gave it 7/10.
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Any game that takes more than 20 hours to teach its mechanics is a bad game.
Forthose people who say that the story is great "if you read the data files", well, thats what books are for.
If you want to produce a fantastic story, do that and charge a fiver for a book.
If you want to produce a fantastic animation, do that, and charge a tenner for the DVD.
If you have a weak story, but great animation, and the slightest amount of interacitvity, stick "Final Fantasy" in the title and charge £45 for it.
3/10
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This review was, for me, perfect. Bang on the money - though a few faults it highlighted (though not all, many I would've wanted to see fixed myself if it were possible) are things that for me are more like artistic choices than anything else. Characters for instance. Yeah, they're stereotypical in many cases, but that said I don't care because this is the first of all the Final Fantasies I've played that was finally, truly Character Driven. For once the game didn't stop bothering to develop its characters halfway through, and instead try to placate me with revelations and epic-ness instead of proper growth. I haven't had this sort of RPG storyline gratification since Grandia .. except maybe for Suikodens II and V.
Quite frankly, I only had two real, serious complaints: 1: the lack of the Japanese voice track.. Stupid XBox limitations and Square-Enix attempts to be fair (or, in my opinion, pressure from Microsoft) denied me a much more enjoyable second playthrough. 2: Vanille. Her character was brilliant. The revelation about her was relatively predictable, but the way she dealt with that truth was extremely well-deployed, just like the really nice way Hope's character went and all. But Vanille's voice actress was, for me, horrible, and crippled what should have been the game's most appealing character. I would give a lot to be able to play it with the Japanese voice track, if only to see Vanille with a voice that didn't undermine her.