Final Fantasy XIII

[relyanCe]

I know what I'm complaining about and I payed close attention to the plot. I don't need you to correct my argument, nor did I ask you to.

of course i was only talking to you. i mean it's not like there's ANYBODY ELSE complaining about ffxiii's linearity out there.

narcissist much?

I'm well aware that the plot was probably chosen on purpose to avoid the whole cities thing. You also spend a lot of time as a fugitive in FFXII and FFX, and they did the opposite and found ways for you to get around cities despite that. They could have easily tailored features of the plot to allow for cities, they just clearly didn't want to as it's probably way too expensive to make a proper city these days.

yeah those dirty game developers ruining our fun. who gave them the right? seriously, they did it before why can't they just do it all over again i mean that's all i play it for.

in FFX: the only thing that changes once you become a fugitive is that you can't go back to Bevelle. You can walk up to yevon-controlled areas and mill about as if nothing is wrong. this is called gameplay-story segregation. it's what you expect out of games, and you didn't get it this time around and now you're mad about it. jeez.

Another game that readily comes to mind is Tales of Symphonia. You become a fugitive from the major city on the continent and all that changes to get in and around the city is walking right in front of the guards to go to a side passage. You can then traipse about the city and talk to guards/fight in the (massively public) arena/do whatever and nobody does anything.

They don't do that in FFXIII, for whatever reason, and you can pretend they did it because they were lazy or just being jerkasses to their market or whatever, but the point remains that this game breaks jrpg conventions with finesse, and because you didn't get to chat it up with the townsfolk, it's just slipshod work man.

...

I still think it's kinda funny that the developers actually gave the players a bait-and-switch town setting. I honestly thought I was gonna get a breather milling about in Nautilus.

[Arcana]

As pretty as this game is, I actually found that many of the backgrounds were somewhat bland. There were not enough unique occurrences going on in the world. I actually found Gran Pulse interesting for that Reason (unlike everyone else) because I got to see some of the Famed "brutality" of the world via monsters kicking the crap out of each other.

[Fishy]

of course i was only talking to you. i mean it's not like there's ANYBODY ELSE complaining about ffxiii's linearity out there.

narcissist much?

I never said you were only talking to me, but your comment was aimed at people who expressed the view I just did.

Generalizing your comments does't make them any less directed at the people you are generalizing about. It just means that when an individual questions them you can call them narcassistic, and think you totalled called them out. You didn't.

As for the rest of your post; I'm not some mad fanboy who is angry at square for changing the formula - all I said was the older games had more content for whatever reason, be it being rushed by publishers or costs of making cities. Thus i enjoyed them more. You change the formula, you will get people not liking stuff about it. People coming down on you for not liking the change of formula when it is genuinely less enjoyable seems really strange. They took a risk, imo it failed, but not catastrophically or anything.

[Bahamut]

I'm on the flip side of the equation - I enjoyed FFXIII far more than a lot of the other ones. Yes, they made it more linear, but they also tightened up the presentation so that too much openness doesn't kill the effect as have done in the past. It's not one that everyone has to agree with, but I see it as a clear step above games like FFXII personally.

[PriZm]

FFXIII would probably have been better if they could have charged 10$ more.

[Brandon Strader]

I was freaked out by the giant AT-ATs

I'd have to grind a looot to be able to fight one

[The Legendary Zoltan]

I don't think any of you guys have really made Bleck eat his hat yet. He asked for JRPGs in which the battle system ISN'T the main thing. Xenosaga, Wild Arms, and all those that were mentioned all revolve around the battle system, yo. Even if the story seems bigger than the battle system, practically the ONLY way to improve your characters is battles in those games.

Even after the first 20 hours, the game still does not pick up for me.

I am honestly trying to enjoy this game, really. It appears that I unfortunately never will.

Unfortunately, I agree with Arek. I WANT to like it. I've played about 20 hours but I just can't get into it. Recently I got Valkyria Chronicles in the mail and now I don't know if I'll EVER go back to FF13. And now I'm all worried that Versus 13 and Agito might be similar.

Don't know what to do at all.

[PriZm]

i disagree. i would say that you don't even spend 50% of your time in battles in xenosaga. sure improving your character is important, but i would not say it is the main focus of the game.

also if you're not into it after 20 hours, don't bother

[The Legendary Zoltan]

i disagree. i would say that you don't even spend 50% of your time in battles in xenosaga. sure improving your character is important, but i would not say it is the main focus of the game.

also if you're not into it after 20 hours, don't bother

Nice.

!HOWEVER!

How much of the playing time is in battle?

[relyanCe]

How much of the playing time is in battle?

dude, have you played xenosaga? yes, you spend most of your playtime watching cutscenes.

unless of course you mean character/city/blah interaction, which is, well, hard to say.

[The Legendary Zoltan]

dude, have you played xenosaga? yes, you spend most of your playtime watching cutscenes.

unless of course you mean character/city/blah interaction, which is, well, hard to say.

I've played it. I meant the time you spend actually pushing buttons and controlling the characters. But even with all the cut scenes, depending on how complete you want to be, I think Xenosaga can be more than 50% battling. Especially, if you're the grindy type.

[PriZm]

yes of course if you're the grindy type you can spend most of your time in battles. However, this is not required to beat any of the enemies in the game, including the optional strongest boss. Holy shit did I love this series.

Anyways, back to Final 13; as I said, 20 hours is longer than you would ever spend finishing most action games, so I say if you cannot get into it after that time, don't bother. It's not gonna change much anyways, and there are too many good games out to waste your time

Personally I loved the game, I just thought the grinding and post-game were the worst in the history of RPGs.

[Bahamut]

yes of course if you're the grindy type you can spend most of your time in battles. However, this is not required to beat any of the enemies in the game, including the optional strongest boss. Holy shit did I love this series.

Anyways, back to Final 13; as I said, 20 hours is longer than you would ever spend finishing most action games, so I say if you cannot get into it after that time, don't bother. It's not gonna change much anyways, and there are too many good games out to waste your time

Personally I loved the game, I just thought the grinding and post-game were the worst in the history of RPGs.

There's plenty that are worse - perfect example is 7th Saga, where you literally win by luck.

[ambinate]

I'm not really feeling it. (I'm sure people have said all of this before, but I like complaining.)

I actually dig the battle system and enjoy that part of it, but I don't find the story or characters interesting at all. I just got a little bit past the part where you finally reach a real overworld and I'm having trouble finding the motivation to keep playing because I'm so turned off by the story.

I don't inherently have a problem with the more linear gameplay style, even in comparison to previous FF games. I think it could work if done properly. I just don't think it's done properly here. The pacing is pretty awkward and I felt like I was being rushed through the first 20 or 25 hours, which was sort of uncomfortable.

It's pretty, though.

[1337 1]

I got a 360 recently, and I had a choice between the MW2 game pack, Splinter cell game pack, and the FF13 game pack. Each console claimed to be special edition.

I chose what I deemed the lesser of the three evils. Hey, I got ODST, and this one was the only one with extra controllers. Doesn't sound like 13 is all that crash hot though from what you guys are saying.

[The Derrit]

hey guess what everyone

i got a new xbox and this game and I'M REALLY ENJOYING IT

HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENNINNNNNNGGGGGGG i thought this game was soooooo bad the earth must be upside down or something

[relyanCe]

wow derrit you like ffxiii you must stoooopid

[ambinate]

could you please just not enjoy games that other people don't enjoy.

for everyone's sake. please.

[Mirby]

Someone asked me about this, so I told them what I had heard. But I ended it with, "I haven't played it yet, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Play it yourself if you want to and make your own decisions about it."

[Arcana]

There are definitely many players who enjoyed playing this game, so I wouldn't count it out. I thoroughly enjoyed it even if it wasn't on the same nostalgic, addictive level as some other Final Fantasy games I've played. Some of the scenes in the game are top-notch, and not just from a graphics perspective.

[Brandon Strader]

It's a beautiful game. Truth be told I just got discouraged with it because the overworld seemed like such a daunting task. And the battles had got pretty time-consuming by that point.

[Maruku]

I got the game on PS3 for $30 from a K-Mart sale. After playing it for roughly 22 hours, I think I'm just going to stop. Initially, I was captivated by the pretty CGI, the new battle system, and the excellent voice acting (on some of the characters) and now I'm just bored.

The storyline had me captivated until I fought the Sanctum guy (Dysley or something?) on that gigantic ship and the game just bored me after that. I just feel like the game is dragging on and on with not enough of an interesting story to want to keep playing. It seems like they've introduced me to all of the gameplay mechanics and I'm stuck spending another 20 hours with them and then a couple of more plot twists, etc.

It's not that I don't enjoy linear action games (RPG in this case), but I really just don't feel the desire to keep playing at this point. I blame this primarily on the storyline. There was nothing gripping me after the fight against Dysley even though that's supposed to be a turning point in the game's storyline.

For a game that has so many cinematic sequences, I think they should have focused more on the "Screenplay", cinematography and storyline. The majority of cut scenes move way too quickly and it's hard to even tell what's going on (kind of like District 9 and all the other steadicam movies out there).

I dunno, the game has just rubbed me the wrong way. I'm kind of pissed that I spent 20 hours on it at this point. Then again, I haven't enjoyed a Final Fantasy game since 10.

[Arek the Absolute]

Been giving this game another shot. It is slowly attracting me.

I seriously can't stand Snow. He is the only thing deterring me from getting back into it. Thankfully, however, Hope and Fang are around to peak back up my interest.

Still am not seeing why Hope is hated on.

[OceansAndrew]

Still am not seeing why Hope is hated on.

Because he starts out as a whiny little bitch. He does get better though, which is cool. I am about 38 hours into the game, and just got everyone's Eidolon, and there are missions and stuff now, which are pretty fun.

I still love the art in this. <3

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

Well I guess the entire internet is awesome at coping, because dealing with watching your mother(to whom you're very attached to as opposed to a nearly absent father) die due to being caught up in a stupid government initiative that you had nothing to do with, and then having your entire normal life destroyed by shit you can't change at a very young age is something that I'd imagine a normal person would have a hard time taking.

I'd hate to see you people at funerals.

The one problem I have with Hope is that later in the game his personality does a total 180 and he turns into the one-man cheerleading squad for the team.