The newest Final Fantasy hit stores on the 9th. I've been looking forward to this game for a while now, but the closer it came to launch day, the worse the reviews of the game seemed to become. Apparently it is unbelievably beautiful, has a very good story and interesting characters, but the linearity of game play is quite a bit different than what we've become accustomed to seeing in Final Fantasy games. My question those of you that may have already bought it - is this worth the $60?

 

I actually really like the battle system in thirteen despite returning both Final Fantasy X-2 and XII, a bit of a challenge really.

I'm only on Chapter 5 but the story hasn't really impressed me so far, the characters are tolerable at best and the cutscenes leaning towards campy.

The game is quite linear, (I've basically been walking through dungeons and fighting battles for the last six hours) but once again; I hear it evens out a bit later into the game.

I'd buy it if can handle constant streams of monsters with a only cutscenes in between, and a somewhat interesting story. I give it maybe 3/5 so far, but then again I'm only 7 hours in.

 

There was one a time when I would have cared about a Final Fantasy being released on a console(s) that I don't own. Not anymore, lol.

 

Apparently the first half of the main game is pretty much one big combat tutorial, getting you used to the complex (but supposedly very rewarding) combat system. Further, apparently after the game ends you have post-final boss absolute freedom, with a shit-ton of side quests and mini games.

I'll be getting it, but not for another week or so (Easter hols start on the 19th).

 

Yeah, the first 15+ hours or so are pretty damn linear, but I'm liking the plot and the characters, not to mention the battle system (Which is better than FF12, for me anyway), and it's still a main series Final Fantasy game. Call me loyal to the point of stupidity, but I'm going to play it through, linear as fuck or not...

Though I really kinda hope it branches out soon like the reviews and impressions say.

 

Gonna pick it up; I'll let you guys know what I find.

 

XIII.

Also, this game sucks. It's the only FF that's disappointed me in my life >_<" I'll be jumping the "THIS IS NO FF!" bandwagon, cause it's true.

Sure, it's got awesome graphics and good character development, but auto-battle and linearity = fail. I just hit Gran Pulse though, which is the best part of the game thus far. There have been many times I've managed to play only a few hours though, since it got so boring.

Edit: Let us not forget the Eidolons that turned Transformers! My Shiva can turn into a fucking motorbike, imagine that. FAIL.

 

You realise you can turn the auto-battle feature off, right?

 

You also realise that the game having "Final Fantasy" in the title kinda makes it part of the series?

 

Yeah. You could turn off Gambits from XII too, but I still ended up using them. Entirely my fault, but fights do end up being just smashing X... which FF's kind of are anyways. I guess I just don't like the combat system.

Sure, but it's not a Final Fantasy that I loved. Therefore, not a 'real' Final Fantasy for me. Yes, I'm aware that I'm being ridiculous, but it's the amount of awesomeness that makes Final Fantasy, and XIII just lacked it for me. That's why I said I jumped the bandwagon.

Besides, the series has changed so radically through the installments that you can hardly call it a series anymore. Sure, there are things like some old song themes, chocobos and Summons/Eidolons in some form, but... too much new stuff to call it a 'traditional, old Final Fantasy'.

TLDR: it's still a boring game IMO.

 

The game arrived yesterday and I got 4 hours worth out of it before I had to give in and go to sleep. First impressions of the game are... Meh. Best parts of it so far are:

1) The storyline. It's the most interesting part of the story so far and even though I'm only a few hours in (and the party was only really brought together after about 3 hours) it's kept pulling at my thoughts since I put the control down. Always a good sign.

Spoiler

The link between the Pulse Fal'cie and the Sanctum one - as well as the more obvious Purge - suggests either a government conspiracy or the idea that this is a war between the Fal'cie, with the Pulse using beasts as its medium and the Sanctum using humans. Interesting.

2) The character interactions. I'm not going to give much away, but the way they've handled Hope (the typical FF bishonen) is vastly different than what I was expecting. He's an actual coward. Just think about how rare that bloody well is in a game like this. Add in the thing with Snow and Hope's mother and... I see some good plot action going on ahead.

2a) Not so much a pro as a 'Major Meh' is the dynamic between Snow/Lightning/Serah. It's a typical love triangle, though I'll admit the whole [color=]turning to crystal thing[/color] kinda puts a wrench in the works.

3) The battle system. I'm gonna list this as a potential con too since the novelty hasn't worn off yet and I'm just getting used to using the full system (which I'm not even totally sure I am yet), but the way you can chain attacks is still pretty interesting and I can really understand why they only let you use one character at a time. There's just so damn much going on that it would be impossible to try and order three or four people around at once.

3a) Following on from that is the paradigm/Crystarium system, which strikes me as a mixture of the FFX sphere grid and the FFXII gambit system, which were both very interesting (the sphere grid is a personal favourite of mine) and it seems to be mixing well so far. The way they're implemented in the paradigm system is pretty cool too. Ignore the whining that you can't have the medic attack enemies, you can switch paradigms mid-battle (ala dress sphere system from FFX-2, I think), and it adds a level of strategy that appeals to the Sins of a Solar Empire gamer in me. Also note, setting up paradigms beforehand is IMPORTANT. Running in to a boss fight with the wrong paradigms set up to handle it means you will die multiple times and you will be doing jack shit against it. This isn't a game of brute force and applying specific attacks to certain weaknesses, it's a game of skill where you have to adapt your tactics to different foes.

4) Vanille. As soon as I unlock who gets to be party leader, it's going straight to her. This must be the only game in the world that makes me want to walk everywhere, rather than run.

5) Eidolons. I'm saving this spot for when I actually get to use them. I'm only just at the point where I've unlocked the Shiva Sisters (and the transformation sequence that turns them into a bike is seriously awesome), but haven't had the chance to actively use them yet, so I'll withhold judgement.

Now for the cons:

1) As the most often spoken of con so far I'll list this one here. The path is too linear. You can see the resemblance between FFX and XIII here since each area follows on to the next with only superficial choices of which direction to take. That and there is no conceivable way to run away from a battle that I've seen, since even if there is a method of escaping battle, you've got no other way to get around them unless you want to use a Desceptimol (a Shroud which hides you from enemies and lets you get a pre-meditated strike on them).

2) The battle system. I'm holding this as a placer for in case I get sick of it after a while. One minor gripe I've got at the moment though is that the only attacks you're ever likely to use with the Commando paradigm is Blitz+Attack. They do the task of filling up the stagger gauge (which stuns the enemy and gives you constant critical hit damage when filled) and are the most powerful attacks I've unlocked for it so far, especially since Blitz damages multiple enemies at once. Perhaps once I've unlocked a few more that will change, but it's getting pretty tiring already just doing the same moves over and over.

2a) Another gripe that may become larger is that you can't change your set paradigms mid-battle. If you run into an enemy that is hurting you badly and your current paradigms are doing shit to hurt it... You just have to die and try a different set. Techniques like libra help in this regard since you can just cast it once for your first trial + error attempt and then use the info in your next attempt to try a different tactic. Adding in that there are save points literally every five minutes and you get a game that doesn't really punish you for dying, which I believe games like this should.

3) Vanille. Stereotypical Japanese Schoolgirl. That said, she has far and away the most awesome weapon in the game. It's better than the mechanical sword, the dual guns, the giant spear. It's just plain awesome. Imagine a staff. Now imagine what looks like antlers attached to the top of it. Now imagine that those antlers shoot high tensile steel wires that rip things to bits in a manner not unlike Walter of the Hellsing anime. Fuck. Yeah.

Okay, that's all I can be bothered to note down at the moment, but so far this game is very nice to look at, and the story line's pretty cool, but other than that it just seems like old ideas mixed together with a thin coating of very nice paint to cover it up. I'll give a proper judgement once I've got a few more hours under my belt, but until then I give this a 3.5/5.

 

I finally got the game. I personally dont have that big of a problem with how linear it is. Its not that different from FFX to me. 10 was very linear until pretty much the calm lands. But I'll agree its not as great as I had hoped.

I like the battle system especially later in the game when everything becomes available. One thing really dont care for is the battle grading. It just gets on my nerves and other than restoring TP I really dont get the point. One other thing I dont really care for is you only have one summon avaible at a time. Unlike FFXII I have actually used the summons some but mostly to clear the field of small annoying pests so I can get to the big enemies.


Hoping Versus XIII is as awesome as it looks.

Dont know if this needs to be in tags or not but better safe than sorry.

Spoiler

Anyone figure out how to beat those big ass dinosaur things on Gran Pulse? I seem to get creamed with the first hit everytime I tried

 

Alright so I've been playing this and I'm forced to admit after getting past my initial gripe of the whole Transformers thing I'm actually enjoying this game. I enjoy the battle system, I seriously enjoy the fact that you don't have to concern yourself with MP anymore, that makes shit very nice. The chain gauge is an interesting concept and I like the way its been used, Crystarium is pretty good and the Paradigm system is an interesting continuation of Gambits.

With the characters, even if he has a terrible name Snow is pretty damned awesome.

Spoiler

The part where he bursts into the arena with Fang on the Shiva bike and fucking ruins Psicom's shit was pretty badass.

My gripes so far, with the battle system while I like lots of things about it, I do not like the fact that if the Leader goes down you lose regardless of whether or not every single other member of your team is alive and well. I dislike being forced to use two people at times, a three man team is perfect.

All in all I think it comes down to the same thing that a lot of Final Fantasy games do, if you like the series you'll like this one, if you don't then you most likely won't like this.

 

Playing this game now. Hating it. The only FF game so far that's annoyed the piss out of me.

Vanille makes me want to punch the screen everytime she's on it. Nonstop high as shit giggling that borderlines on sex noises is annoying, really how many times does she need to sigh deeply? She's there for jap-jailbait fap fests, just give her a shorter skirt and shut her the fuck up.

Combat system seemed okay until I realized I'm doing the same 2 or 3 moves no matter what. Boring. The shift system is interesting at first, and I thought the whole grid unlocking thing would be interesting, until damned near everything is just stat increases, and small ones at that.

Only controlling one character bugs the hell out of me, but yeah, it's too fast paced to do anything else, but the fact that if the leader goes down, you all die is fucked.

Most of the cutscenes are beautiful, but painful to watch they're so fucking bad. Snow and Hope especially come off as just stupid. The black dude with the chocobo tends to be amusing, but the rest, not so much.

Just after the Shiva fight now, which .... it's a bike. REALLY? Looks cool, but yet retarded at the same time. Sit your cock right on her face, and crank that throttle.

 

Yeah, I'm actually pretty proud of myself; I managed to play that game as much as I could despite hating nearly every aspect of it.

I don't know how far you'll get, but I gave up when you have to fight a boss that has five different faces, has a ridiculously large health pool, rapidly and continuously casts 4 different types of -aga level spells at you with a seemingly endless amount of energy, and generally bends you over and makes you take it...over and over and over and over and over again. And that's after you take 3 hours to fight through a fucking army of superpowered grunts (Seriously? SquareEnix makes the average enemy you face have over 300,000HP. I wish I was kidding...).

Good Luck, Have Fun!

 

Yeah, I managed to stumble over the finish line on this one. It was satisfyingly disappointing from beginning to end. I kept expecting it to get better, or something.

The real problem was:

Spoiler

The lack of an overly-epic story arc, plus a shit ton of side quests not accessible until the main game has been bested once. That's not Final Fantasy. It was beautifully crafted, sure, but the quality of the story was severely lacking.

VIII had a better story, in terms of scale and what was at stake, and VIII was fairly shit.

Upon reflection, it was like Twilight, really. All sparkles and sprinkles, making it look all hot and edgy, but the actually story was a big ol' pile of dog shit.

 

I was pretty disappointed as well, I mean I wasn't expecting the best thing ever, but I was quickly growing bored of the long fights and having to lift every enemy in the air just to do anything resembling damage compared to their HP. That brings me to the next point, why the fuck is the basic enemies HP so damn high? I thought we were done with that after XII. Well, at least we have Verses XIII still. That's suppose to be an Action RPG like Kingdom Hearts and I happen to like that over the ATB system.

 

Do want Versus. Do not want to shell out for a PS3.