“Why Final Fantasy XIII is a Bad Game”
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Dec 20, 2009 02:40 JST
- Tags: 2ch, Final Fantasy, Production Controversy, PS3, RPG, Square Enix
Criticism of blockbuster RPG Final Fantasy XIII has rapidly mounted, with the initial observation that the game is almost comically linear giving way to a litany of further dissatisfactions, many quite unavoidable even for the game’s many staunch defenders.
A digest of criticism from 2ch:
The whole game is completely linear until halfway through [approximately 20 hours].
There are hardly any towns.
The party is always fixed. The whole game just repeats the movie-battle sequence over and over [In fact the progression is closer to movie-run-battle-run-movie-boss-movie-run-battle…].
There are rather a lot of movies.
Moving around is like a long marathon.
The whole game system is just a clone of FF10.
You can’t flee battles [You can’t avoid most battles either as there is no sneaking past enemies, including weak ones].
Your party is completely healed after each battle.
If the main character in your party dies it is game over [There are only ever 3 characters in battle, often less, and often fixed].
The best tactic is almost always endlessly attacking. There is next to no strategy or skill involved.
The summons’ transformation scenes are a joke [i.e. Odin turning into a horse].
The story is rubbish… [Spoilers omitted, but complaints centre on Snow’s constant and cringe inducing insistence that he is a hero and will “protect” whatever it is the antagonists are menacing this time]
Shopping is only done at “online” shops on save points, with no proper shops to be found.
However, this doesn’t matter as you hardly ever get any money [and you can never buy anything more powerful than what you already looted].
There have been next to no changes from the demo.
The status screen displays no real information.
There are only 8 items usable in combat [For that matter, there are hardly any weapons or accessories, and the “crafting” system mostly consists of spending drops to upgrade their 2 stats].
There are no levels.
With all their advertising money, just how was it they failed even to get Famitsu to give full points?
Some of these criticisms are exaggerated or require further qualification, but on the whole they are fair, and any review which does not dwell long and hard on some of these design choices is certainly suspect.
It already seems clear the game is far from the dramatic step forward it was supposed to be, though whether these issues make the whole game “bad” is certainly open to question. However, it does seem something went very wrong with the game’s development all the same…
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I'm not surprised in the least, since Square Enix hasn't produced a single quality title yet. They can only live on the reputation and huge success of Squaresoft's and Enix's titles. But now, they are pretty much like Blizzard and Nintendo, just dumbing down and rehashing.
i still have hope (if haruhi fans can hope 4 somthink better so can i) and there games are not that bad i think u r being a little harsh although blizzard has been noticeably dropping in quality ill give u that one
it's obvious that the FF series was always on the downhill in terms of the original RPG gameplay that made FF so enjoyable ever since FF7...
R they doing it on purpose? Because it's 13? Phobia of 13? If this is the case then the ff 15 will be a lot better. And why ff 14 released online? Is it because of 4?
Like wtf, whole game will be one road!?
And how about cityscapes and shit, and 3D realistic people walking around to zoom in and talk with!? None?
NO Levelups,
NO Stats,
NO equipments,
where's the "RPG" in this?
What is this I don't even
it's more of an interactive movie, i guess...
True, but Dragon Age: Origins managed the "interactive movie" experience without compromising the RPG aspects in the least.
I weep for Squaresoft's legacy.
To defend the game by saying "Oh well there's as many people who gave it 4 and 5 stars."
Well let me explain, not everyone has the same taste, same standards, we cannot help people with no sense of taste and have little to zero standards. So these people will think the game is awesome, cause they haven't gotten a clue what jrpgs were like.
I officially declare Square's golden age is dead and gone. The best gameplay designers, the best storytellers, gone. Just a bunch of guys who only know how to make the game look gorgeous, and thats it.
Now back to the amazon.co.jp issue. Theres obviously something wrong with this game for the reviews to be the way they are. Stop the denial.
I'm not telling the people who put the faith down that this game is great no matter what and nothing we say will change that, some of you are just stubborn, and waste of time trying to convince you otherwise.
But looking at the reviews and how crazy it is, it just proves that this game is EPIC FAILURE, (again to those who put their faith so wholeheartedly, I know what I'm saying just isn't going to do anything, so just ignore me, okay?) EPIC FAILURE!
People dont sit around reviewing games, most people would be playing the game, for that many people to be upset, just to go on amazon and write a review. Thats something.
I thought about sending a msg to square-enix... but I think they got it. Waited all these years for an awesome game.. its no wonder so many people are pissed. Pissed enough to write a review.
that golden age can't be regained
they'd have to go back in time to pull that out of there asses
all we ask is for them to make games, in this age, that can hold a candle to say FFI, FFIV, FFV, FFVI, FFVII, FFIX... etc.
I wonder if Square still has on there staff a lot of the great developers who released classics like Chrono Trigger and FF3/6. Seems like most of their modern games lack the story and soul that made those previous games so enjoyable even if they were linear.
So we can turn our summons into a car, who cares!
Wait wait what about Versus! I knew thirteen would be crap but I have high hopes for versus...
There ARE level ups and stats and equipments. It's fairly basic for equips (equip weapons, armors and accessory) and stats (you'll have only 2 main stats though, magic attack and physical attack) but the level up system is done via some thing called the 'Crystarium', basically a carbon copy of the Sphere Grid you saw in FFX. If you've played FFX you'll get the idea for it. You'll level this Crystarium which is unique per character, and with each level will unlock new stat upgrades and skills for them.
Can't say the same about roaming though. The game is LITERALLY a horde of LOOOONG marathons and cutscenes. There's not even a puzzle to keep your mind awake. I literally fell asleep while running through one stage once =_=.
Pretty uninspired I say Square people are.
Sakaguchi, the original creator of Final Fantasy.
Uematsu, the composer until FFX (As you know for sure)
have left Square and created a new company called Mistwalker (You might know them from Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon)
To one of you who type these......
"Well let me explain, not everyone has the same taste, same standards, we cannot help people with no sense of taste and have little to zero standards. So these people will think the game is awesome, cause they haven't gotten a clue what jrpgs were like." someone's quote from somewhere above.
If you say people gave the game a high score when the game is crap, then they are the people who have no sense of taste, with lower standard. For me i am seriously believe that your mind are fucked up.
As i mean you Fucked up in the way of judging people with a wrong way. Just because they have different taste, that doesn't mean they have no taste (I am part of this people). It means they are open minded to whatever is coming, Unlike YOU, who stay in the original same spot never move on to see what is going on. I don't mind you judging the game in the way you want, just don't pull any other people into your most hindsight opinion.
Back to the review article......
From the review of this article, it appear people hated FFXIII rather than like it. But there are some reason for like like that there are no town or city (i am not going to say it because this is spoiler's job). My other point are the story is not that bad (but not completely perfected), and it is not true that it based more on Snow's story( it is a equal story-line for all of the casts). But i personally think i based on the two "Oerba" characters. So it is up to You to say Yay or Nay on this game, but I personally think reviews screw people's mind up.
So in conclusion........ Just enjoys the Freaking game. :D
Please, could somebody please explain to me how pushing a stagnated genre forward could in anyway not be polarizing to a fanbase so enamored with their ideas of what the series "should be"? Let's consider, for instance, the ideas of the anonymous user above me, who postulated that Square's "golden age is dead and gone." Now, I'm sure by "golden age", he means FF4-6,Super Mario RPG, and Chrono Trigger (like essentially everyone ever). But what constitutes a "golden age"? Maybe I liked Square better when they developed low-quality eroge games. Maybe I like Square better now. Maybe I find XII to be the greatest game ever made.
So I suppose the crux of my argument is that it is all subjective. Final Fantasy has, from the very second entry in the series, been about reinventing itself with every new game. Just because XIII is a radical change in the series structure (moreso than XII, from what I've heard) doesn't mean that someone who finds it good has "zero taste." I could say that anyone who has ever played more than one multiplayer match of MW/MW2 is a nationalist inbred with a brain the size of a nut, but that wouldn't make me right. And some of the people to whom I have spoken regarding the game (as in, people who have imported and played it and beaten it, making them infinitely more qualified to talk about it than most of the commentors on this site) have been able to discuss its pros and cons reasonably and calmly.
Anyway, I hope you guys are all enjoying not playing a company's names based on impressions that are not your own. I meanwhile, await the game, in hopes that it will entertain me. After all, that is what games are for, and to go in expecting more would make me liable to enjoy it less than the millions of dollars and thousands of workers' worth.
Blizzard dropping in quality are you completely insane have you actually played wow or any of those games recently?
WOW has improved a lot, and if u say its easy SHOW ME YOUR ACHEVIEVEMENT IN HARD MODE ULDUAR AND HARD MODE TOC.
They made it this way so ppl can get a grasp and everyone can see the lore and story in warcraft and get a share of the loot.
Hell even older dungeons can be partoed with older dungeons now thanks to cross realms, and have i seen 10 million ppl retreat from warcraft nope absoultely not, so they must be doign something right, unlike SE who gets critism but no praises
Oh right, I forgot that incoming wotlk fail and upcoming cataclysm-will-be-fail is an improvement.
w8 wut?
This is too confusing.
have you played the DK quest line yet? if you know what im saying, you'll know the phasing system is the best wotlk has to offer in the mmorpg world.
if you did not know what im saying, well im not saying you're a noob. just play the quest line to be impressed. it itself is THAT EPIC.
Well, WoWfags are as stupid as SEfags...
no, it's not.
@ 23:08
Oh right, I forgot that incoming wotlk fail and upcoming cataclysm-will-be-fail is an improvement.
w8 wut?
This is too confusing.
-----
hmmm? Fail? 10 million subscribers. Blizzard listens to ppl ideas and may implement them in game I just don't see how they actually fail in actually doing stuff?
But then again you must be pro at the game, you stil havent shown me your hard mode achievements, then again your probably one of these tards who think people should devote months and years in the game before they reach max level.
Sorry but no matter what your 1 gamer in about a 10 million ppl. People dont want to spend years in MMORPG and not get anywhere.
As to your WoW comment. WoW has changed so much over the years its not even funny. Its not even same game from when it launched. It is true WoW did get EASIER. Alot easier. As in i can faceroll and beat some of the bosses unless it is a gimmick fight.
However, it also made it possible to log on for four hours a night and still complete end game raid in 2 days or so. Total of eight hours. So it has its ups and downs.
WoW makes the content available for everyone and their pet monkey. However, they add optional speed bumps if you want something harder and you get better rewards for harder difficulty.
but when you can raid 3 end game dungeon in 4 hour span on hardest difficulty and its on farm... yes wow gets redundantly easy sometimes. (Naxx, EoE, OS+3drake in four hours) I believe ulduar took bit longer then 4 hours, but this was before it got Nerf 3 times and before they fixed all the bugs.
Point is, even WoW started ridiculously hard in Vanilla. i hated raiding in Molten Core era... that was work not game. such hardcore game does not sell, especially if contents are not available to general mass.
It's a bit late to reply to this comment but the statement made me want to at least say something. I've always thought Blizzard a good company, I still think they are. I have no reason to think otherwise, they haven't released a new game in quite some time. So I'm just curious how two statements at the very top can say that Blizzard is dumbing down, rehashing, and lowering in quality when the last game they released was an expansion to WoW?
Wait, TWEWY wasn't quality?
Plus 2. TWEWY was awesome.
HAHA, Yeah XBOX FTW "LOST Odyssea..^^
LOST ODYSSEY = FINAL FANTASY with another game...
i very much disliked lost odyssey. the idea was good but the execution felt like just that, an execution. every battle was insanely hard, and even after i did the power leveling from 23 to 60 in on part of the game not progressing the story at all, the game was still hard as shit. what is the point of leveling up if the enemies just get stronger with you?
The load times on Lost Odyssey made it near unbearable for me. Almost 30 second load time before a fight and then almost another 30 second load time after fights. I hated random battles for the loading rather than the difficulty of the enemies.
Uh Lost Odyssey wasn't hard at all.... D:
Enemies don't level up with you either.
I also didn't have the load time issue. It seemed varied from one system to another or maybe different people's perspective?
I didn't have any problems with load times either. Loading battles literally took five seconds, and it took five seconds leaving battles.
Also, I did think Lost Odyssey was hard, but not overly hard. Battles were kind of challenging, but not ridiculous.
Lost Odyssey wasn't easy but it wasn't hard either, as long as you know what were enemies weakness is(and seeing how you can change what you use mid battle without losing a turn). And I had no issue's with load times either.
Twewy was great. Then Wada tells his company that they should stop taking risks and focus on titles that will bring in guaranteed money, i.e. lots of remakes and no more titles like twewy. He mentioned that in an article a few months ago.
"A months ago" is a very short time. FFXIII and Versus have been in development for YEARS.
Likely, the development of Versus has only just started, as the entire FF section of development has been working on FFXIII and mainly on the 360 release.
Also, the Kingdom Hearts team was working mainly on the PSP game.
thats not true, versus has been in development since 05, SE didnt take the devs from it to make ff13, they had seperate teams
Fine by me, perhaps the good developers are working on Versus. I was actually looking forward to Versus more, though I will be buying all three ff13 titles (and KH Birth by sleep).
SE needs to realise that ultra hyper realistic graphics (and trailers) with generic RPG elements doesnt (usually) make the game uber good...
Haha I thought FF5 was the best for the class system, but that's just me (that was the true def of a good RPG in terms of gameplay).
They are probability still trying redefine RPGs. RPGs since D&D focus on levels. D&D have two branches. However with the rise of MMORPGS, developers favored the level system.
The other branch is how characters with proper choice making can defeat an opponent irregardless of level. Thus, negating the option for levels. This is probability what SE is trying to explore. And if they succeed, will redefine RPGs.
The game criticism is just as bad as gamers calling another gamer a nerd. Based on how the reviews comes, the game is replicating the world and how it has evolved with the introduction of the internet.
The same has gone for FPS when the players' life bars regenerate over time if they are not in combat.
Sadly, the Japanese and all the impatient gamers have thrown their Yen on the game. Lets hope that they give proper feedback and improve the gameplay for the International release.
SE cant redefine RPG because they dont make RPS at all. If player cant define his character its not RPG.
I hope someone will try to make a RPG (regular RPG, western-like, fallout-like) that dont use levels but still contains all of RPG elements. It would be hated by stubborn players who still thinks that Diablo is best RPG ever, but screw them, I want to see it.
Well, in Dungeon Master you just selected few heroes out of pictures that were there... I don't remember if there was character creation, it was so long ago... And no one says it's not RPG.
Futhermore I played some RPG sessions in which we had characters prepared by the dungeon master, not many, but it was interesting distraction.
You mis-understand 'define his character' if you are given a character in a play, it is not that same as watching a character in a movie, you must play the role, or role play, thus the name role playing game. And no video-game is an RPG, there may be some with elements, and maybe eventually there will be some, but computers just aren't advanced enough yet.
Anon 07:28: Dungeon Master was a Dungeon - its that almost forgottern game gendre that was about solving puzzles in endless dungeons. This name fits todays RPGs much more than. DM just isnt RPG, never was, never will be and nobody ever called it RPG anyways.
Anon 07:49: Yep, most of videogame RPGs arent RPS at all, but there are games that fit RPG definitions pretty well. Saying that no videogames cant be RPG is unreasonable. Yes, you will be always restricted in decisions by engine/script but hey - bad gamemaster can be worse.
Anon 07:49,
lol oldfag, computers ARE advanced enough to provide 'role playing' experiences you need to take your pen and paper out of your ass and move on from the 80's.
I'd like to say that this oldfag is an electronic engineer, I know the physical capabilities of computers better than most people, and I have a few friends in computing of a similarly classified nature. Maybe computing is advanced enough, but not commercially available computers, even the computers we used aren't. I shall hold off my judgement completely until computing starts to deal with CNT, but that's a little way off. Unless of course you mean online play with a DM, in which case you have a good point sir, but that's a different thing all together.
As for the bad game master thing, I guess that's true, but a bad game master is still going to allow intricacies which a video game isn't capable of, even if the reaction isn't as fitting as a video game RPG's. Either way I do look at VRPGs differently from PRPGs so I don't mind the difference, I simply am never willing to call them the same thing.
There is always reasons why people still prefer pen and paper. Go to the nearest hobby shop and get the latest game manual for D&D. Find a good forum to play the game. It improves you English as well because you create your story out of the scenario. D&D has also evolved with technology.
With this point being mentioned, "new" gamers often have poor judgment of games. With the lack of exposure to older games which are pivoting points in game benchmarking, they blindly falsify points with their own opinions without concrete backups.
Then again, making comparison with the removal of the "HP" bar. The move is likely linked to CS because players with low HP are inclined to camp instead of moving around. Thus with recoverable health, the developers hope that there will be more aggressive gameplay.
Application of this to RPG, without levels, means that players are no longer bounded to grinding.
However, when game balancing comes into play, SE obviously shot themselves in the foot.
D&D didnt evolved much - it only got more complex rules, but no new game mechanics were added since version 1. But overall P&P games nowadays involve much more interesting game mechanics that pushes RPG gendre further - there are systems like Fate, Wushu etc...
To better understand Anon 07:49/16:43, please read this: http://insomnia.ac/commentary/on_role-playing_games/
square already made a game without levels and it worked out fine. it was a little number called Chrono Cross. i was kinda looking forward to this game, now i am like screw this i want Heavy Rain: the origami killer. but as far as rpg's go, im sure that i'm not alone in saying that i like levels. i just wish the story would revolve around levels a little more. like characters noticing that you are very powerful for your age/where your at in the game. like in star ocean 2. i beat dias in the tournament, and they still acted like i lost in the aftermath.
I loved Chrono Cross ^_^
now if only they would suddenly make a sequel
-ayu, to lazy to log in
Wasn't Chrono Trigger the sequel to Chrono Cross?
wrong way round, but yeah chrono cross is the second in the chrono series, although direct sequel it certainly is not.
On that note: PLEASE SQUARE DON'T MAKE A CHRONO CROSS SEQUEL!!!!!
I love RPGs or MMORPGS such as guildwars where level differences can be overcome with skill and good choicemaking, the grind in FF12 was horrid and the only other option was to spam quickenings :(
I hope these statements are as exaggerated as they seem.
"The other branch is how characters with proper choice making can defeat an opponent irregardless of level. Thus, negating the option for levels. This is probability what SE is trying to explore. And if they succeed, will redefine RPGs."
I would say that this is the exact option of what square is going for considering you still aren't making any choices in the game.... Sounds more like they made it an action game
excuse me Starcraft II
Why hello there Daikatana.
Daikatana....the name that should not be spoken!.
Exactly, Starcraft II with achievements and separated ladder system? What the hell? Also the least amount of new units/buildings/features or anything else which would add depth in a numbered sequel in Blizzard history. Unlimited units in a control group? They are obviously dumbing down the game.
Wait so lemme get this straight. You have achievements, which is pretty much standard in today's online games. Then you complain there's no new features.
After this you complain they didn't change much from the original SC, a game concept that works and that is still massively played and a bloody sport in Korea, which is exactly what the others wanted. This is, it seems, "dumbing down the game".
Does not compute.
You don't get sarcasm.
Sarcasm is lost on this one...
Why not just a more traditional FF game? Why not add a few new features to make it unique?
When they change it to the point there is no similarity to the established series, that makes it completely different, and not a truew installment.
@Ray
If you honestly consider achievements a gameplay feature then you might consider getting help.
You know what features are? For example, units with spells, movable buildings, armor and attack types.. My point is, there will be no new features in SCII and that's the first time in Blizzard history. They are practically just making a SC expansion with updated graphics. And that gets me to my original point that Blizzard is just rehashing and dumbing down.
Achievements are for ppl who dont make sex. PERIOD.
@Zidus
First thing first, they have added new things into they game, like new units, new buildings etc. And unlimited control of units is not a bad thing if you can have different hotkeys for different parts of your army.
I dont really care about achievements. The original StarCraft already appeal much casual gamers back in the day. To me they seem to be polishing gameplay rather than dumbing down like what valve did with tf2.
And for the record, blizzard aren't known to offer any cool new features to make their games unique.
@17:50
New units and buildings are not new features, that's something you get in an expansion. Like Frozen Throne. Please stop defending Blizzard, it's pointless.
@Anon 18:17
TF2, dumbing down? Well, at least it's much more fun than your COD6 or whatever. Comedic FPS is also fun.
@zidus
The game is a competitive RTS. You don't add major new gameplay features to an RTS. You add new units with different mechanics or abilities to change up strategies (which they have; melee units that can jump up or down levels of terrain for instance). You just can't make drastic game-breaking changes to multiplayer when you have literally millions of Koreans who treat the game as a national sport with certain expectations. But they did change single player by making a massive campaign that's non-linear where instead of rebuilding your army every time, you can purchase upgrades while in the hub, and then taking them on your next chosen mission.
Oh, and they're completely overhauling their Battle.net service to provide social networking and chat features between all their games, starting with Starcraft II. SC2 might not have a huge amount of new features in the combat itself, but the game overall is a huge upgrade from the previous version. To call it merely an expansion pack just makes you look stupid.
I wouldn't say that all of Blizzard's games suck.. say what you want about WoW, but at the moment it's the best MMORPG out there even if you have to pay for it, not to mention that it may be a lot of things, but linear is certaintly not one of them considering the areas there are to level, how many levels there are (80 going on 85) and the places to explore too.
As for square enix, I think they're last "good" game would've been FF8, I never played FF9 because the character designs turned me off so much. FF7 was fairly excellent and it was no wonder why they went back to make additional ones later on. FF12 to me, just seemed like a Star Wars clone. But that's all up to debate, FF12 was certainly not linear, but it did give me a headache to play it..
>>say what you want about WoW, but at the moment it's the best MMORPG out there
I think by "best" you mean "easiest."
Talk about dumbing down a game.
FFXII has so little in common with Star Wars it's hilarious.
What's hilarious is that you're in denial of it, I said that it had to do with perspective. All those freaking damn creatures, there were so many of them in the market it was stupid. Not to mention it was based in the desert, like star wars, and it was also about some blonde kid who happens to be some kind of superman chosen one, like star wars. Not to mention that it's main character is a freaking princess trying to go up against an empire that's taking over he country.. LIKE FUCKING STAR WARS!
Yeah - when you compare FFXII trailer with SW:EpisodeI trailer you will get almost the same feel. Weird fashion, colorful enviroment, weird creatures...
@08:23
Yes, because Star Wars was certainly the precursor of all those things <_<
Plus, you got several wrong. The several races were implemented in that universe in a previous game, that was nothing like Star Wars.
Ivalice has always had deserts, like, almost every other game that is set in an extremely large portion of a world. Unlike Star Wars, which uses the insanely deficient 'one environment' world system.
The blond kid is no where near superman chosen hero. In fact, Vaan is barely a spectator of the story, an avatar of the player. He has no purpose other than tagging along, and his proper story only begins in the sequel.
You did get the princess thing kinda right... but considering almost everything the two princesses went through are entirely different, and one princess actually fights the Big Bad... You can see where I'm going.
Oh, and they never took over any country in Star Wars. They were fighting to abolish an empire, not get it to back down from conquering the universe.
Superficial similarities don't make a clone. The same way your comment failed to make a substantial point for lack of accuracy.
@08:23
Yes, because Star Wars was certainly the precursor of all those things <_<
Plus, you got several wrong. The several races were implemented in that universe in a previous game, that was nothing like Star Wars.
Ivalice has always had deserts, like, almost every other game that is set in an extremely large portion of a world. Unlike Star Wars, which uses the insanely deficient 'one environment' world system.
The blond kid is no where near superman chosen hero. In fact, Vaan is barely a spectator of the story, an avatar of the player. He has no purpose other than tagging along, and his proper story only begins in the sequel.
World of Warcraft is as easy or difficult as you and your guild want to make it. Certainly, you can get extremely good gear after the latest patch release, but it's not the best gear by a long shot. To get that you'd need to clear the hard mode raiding content, and that content is truly difficult.
Even the best guilds in the world agree that Yogg-Saron with no keepers assisting is one of the most difficult and well designed raid encounters ever created, requiring perfect execution from the entire raid. Hard mode Mimiron and Anub'Arak similarly take a large amount of gearing up for and great coordination to take down. The latest Icecrown Citadel bosses require a lot of coordination even on normal mode.
I just don't understand why people immediately rage out on WoW as soon as it's mentioned. It has its easy content, and you can solo level up, but it still has plenty of hard content. There's no reason you can't do the latter if you like banging your head against the wall in MMOs.
You really haven't been playing FFXII if you are saying that it's not linear, lol. I mean, seriously. Also, FFVIII being the last "good" game? Is character design the only thing you base your RPGs on on what is good or not? That's sad, if so, because the story should come first rather than on how the characters look. :P
You seriously need to broaden your RPG horizons there, son. :P
-Schooled by an RPG-playing female.
You do realize that every game company does rehashes, mainly due to the fact that rehashing franchise actually sells. Whenever a company comes out with a new series, most customers are wary of the series because they're unfamiliar with it, and worried it won't be as good as their other series if they're using a new gameplay system.
Microsoft has nonstop rehashes of Halo, Sony has nonstop rehashes of Ratchet & Clank, and Sega has nonstop rehashes of Sonic. I can guarantee you they're probably planning more rehashes soon. Basically my point is, to point out only a certain group of companies for rehashing their products is rather pointless, especially when every company does it because it's a secure sale for them.
It's gay how they don't USUALLY experiment and bring out totally different games, because what happens now is that they focus on the sequel, hype it up, and then when you play, it fails to deliver...
(ahem star ocean 4)
Same could be said about Metal Gear Solid 4, but they did try to experiment with the gameplay. Unfortunately at the same time they focused most of their attention to the cinematic aspects of the game, which resulted in a game with more time spent watching cinematics, than actual time spent on playing the game.
I PRAY VERSUS THAT VERSUS COMES OUT GOOD!
Don't worry, this is just complete nit-picking. My Jap copy is on the way and I'm not worried. Check out this english review:
http://www.electronictheatre.co.uk/index.php/articles/3743-electronic-theatre-import-review-final-fantasy-xiii
Wow, I totally agree with that =D
WTF are you talking about!?! This game industry NEED Diablo III and Starcraft II! If Blizzard prefers to do things like SquareEnix then it should have already released Starcraft VII and Diablo X.
If Blizzard is not considered to be a quality company then there is really no quality company. IMO
SE has released some good games, they just haven't released a good Final Fantasy game in forever.
They have, actually : the last one on DS, "4 Warriors of Light" is absolutely awesome, nearly on par with FF4.
If you're an old school FF fan, you should definitely try it.
Well that's a big difference between squeenix and nintendo, nintendo's been on the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" boat for a while now. Despite that, nintendo for the most part knows what its consumers want regardless what lol the "core" fanbase will tell you. As for squeenix itself, that companies been dead to me for a while now. Last good game to come out of them was ratiata stories and that's a stretch.
So Square has never produced a quality title, yet they somehow have a good reputation they can trade off of?
NICE LOGIC THERE.
L2read, he said square-enix. Also nice all-caps, you clearly are 'cool.'
Square should go back and make a deal with Nintendo again to make Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars 2. Bring me back Geno :sniff: Square how could you deny him from being in Brawl :sniff:
All of those reasons make it sound awesome to me.
Why wasn't there this kind of press for FFXII, which was the worst non MMO Final Fantasy yet?
dude wtf are you talking about...ff IS quality you dummy...jeez...but this game isn't sounding too hot though :(
do you know why?
ifyou want good games, don't follow the brand, follow the devs
blizzard has it worst, coz even hellgate london flopped
what you liked in Square has moved to mistwalker
Get a DS and play World Ends With You. Game's pretty solid IMHO.
wow you must be a fucking retard. you may not like it but other people do you fuck face. So when your not playing this game,you will be crying in a corner fucking yourself with your moms dildo
Maybe Famitsu wasn't wrong, then?
Then again.......
Maybe Famitsu wasn't wrong in giving it a near perfect score of 39/40? I'd say they were plenty wrong in that they did not rate it much lower. From the sounds of these flaws (though certainly exaggerated) this may be the lowest point in the main FF series yet. I'm a big fan of FF and loved the games that get a lot of hate (8, 12) but hearing all these flaws certainly is not making me want to play it.
Having to play it is not making me want to play it. I suppose that is a damning indictment.
I could watch Lightning and Vanille all day though...
Exactly, people shouldn't like the game just because it's Final Fantasy so therefore it's suppose to be great. It is disappointing though that if it's true, one of the few FFs that has a female lead is nothing more than some random turn-play shoot-em-up.
Strangely that wasn't the case for FFXII. The fans hated it. D:
you are in my heart dear Anon, i alos love 8 and 12 ;)
8 was awesome, when my roommate told me 8 was on the PSN i hoped out of my bed to my comp to double check in a heartbeat.
maybe they were trying to make this a little bit more casual?
which is still, no reason to write rubbish and put the "epic story-wnage" trademark on there...
It's probably casual with an epic story. It's possible for a game with flawed gameplay to have an outstanding story (hello, Legacy of Kain).
Legacy of Kain was epic I wish it had a proper ending though.
But did you guys even see the trailers? It didn't look epic....
It looked like a cookie cutter drama to me. D:
Legacy of Kain also had something woefully missing from most games - Good Voice Acting.
Uber linear rpg, more like a movie that require human interaction then.
Thought that was Visual Novel's job...
and you know what's the best part about this? is that Sankaku's only good at bringing the bad stuff for their article. The only time Sankaku's being optimistic towards something is from things they only like for themselves. I can't even recall a time when this site had ever been optimistic for an article. That's why it's no wonder (and will always be) this site is a perfect place for trolling, flaming and racism. In fact, This is what this site is good at anyways.
Wait 'till you play the game, there's not a whole lot to be optimistic about.
And still, here you are...
God this is so right, sankaku needs to stop writing about video games altogether and stick with the only thing they know shit about. They had the article about top 10 most disappointing games. What a fucking joke that was. It seems that all sankaku does in regards to gaming is fucking troll. This is getting pathetic sankaku, and I am grateful that I will never have to worry about any one of these people actually becoming some sort of journalist, its bad enough as is. Please stop sankaku, you are only hurting yourself.
Actually I think Sankaku is just reporting what 2ch is saying.
In most cases yes. If the source is a Japanese page, it has a good chance of posting. If the source is a Japanese page that sources an English page, still a good chance. If it's just an English page, chance goes down considerably. Anyone expecting quality news from this site will be solely disappointed.
Hate the message not the messenger!
Instead of making pathetic attempts to disparage the messenger you might want to try playing it yourself, and then discredit the points you disagree with. But you obviously have not played it at all, have you?
And you have evidently never opened a newspaper, otherwise you would realise it is bad news which sells papers, the worse the better. People are more interested in bad news than good, the fact you are here demonstrates that. We're not some supine rag like Famitsu, being paid off to generate good press for some dismal cash cow.
FFFF (FinalFantasyFanboyFaggot) detected. Please bawww some more, i'm already fapping to the FF fanboys raging all over the net.
At this rate, FFXV will be a visual novel, and FFXVI will be a full out eroge. If they're not going to make the RPG element interesting, might as well dump it entirely.
FF visual novel and eroge sounds good to me... ^_^
Eroge? I like it. ^_^
seconded
is there such thing as third? cause eroge sounds fine to me.
meh. don't get your hopes up. it'd probably be linear too.
movie that require human interaction?
Look for indigo prophecy... It is linear as hell, but still offers variety (it is not an rpg but...)
.... and is rendered unplayable due to the constant QTE interludes. A great game ruined by cheap garbage Button Bashing, the smae problem that turned me off of RE4.
"If the main character in your party dies it is game over"
just like persona right?
maybe the other characters can get in the way of a fatal blow too...
I haven't played the game, but this was a really cool mechanic in persona
in persona 4, that is. in persona 3, one lucky hit to main char can give you the urges to snap your controller in half.
Remained me of how many times I got the urge to snap my controller into half when I played Demon's Souls. Persona was nothing in comparison to Demon's Souls.
So true T_T lvling down 10 times in a row isn't fun....
I'm playing Persona 3 FES right now. And man, I wish they put that in 3. In 4, that mechanic saved my life tons of times. Here I am, seeing that shadow ready to throw a big WTF to me and Yosuke knocks me out of the way. That's a buddy for you.
Call it gay all you like. But atleast I wasn't going 'FFFFFF!'
Not the same for P3FES though...
*sigh*
I always loved that element.
"You and Yosuke are now friends. Yosuke is now willing to DIE FOR YOU".
YAY FRIENDSHIP!
Isn't more like YAY GAY?
Please say that a lie. It like playing SMT games. Never has a ff game been like that and then they feel like changing it. This game sounds its getting crapper and crapper.
It seems that the difference is that persona is a good game, and from what people are saying FFXIII is not.
Yet, I'll give the game the benefit of the doubt and wait 'till I play it to make my judgement.
seems like games are becoming more like movies- and for the worse. slick marketing has replaced real gameplay innovation, like how fancy cg effects/big name actors have replaced any real acting/storytelling...
Heavenly Sword was here. Gameplay innovation AND fancy graphics. Wonderful combination.
Except it was too damn short.
Have you played any recent games lately? ALL of them are short.
Games that lasted dozens and dozens of hours went the way of the dinosaur during the PS2/Xbox era. :- / I've just come to accept it.
Err... I'm like 80 hours into my first Dragon Age: Origins run. So...
Except Heavenly Sword's key gameplay flaw: All of the damage was at the end of the Combo, forcing you to mash the same combos endlessly.
That alone ruined Heavenly Sword for me.
If you need a good challenge and innovation, Go play Demon's Souls.. It's the only JRPG that I honestly liked in recent years..
Or a NIS game if you like tactics :P
guess this happens when games are in development for a long time, they get wrapped in their bubble and can only judge the game from just the one perspective. I'm sure the game is good though, but not as good as it couldve been.
It is the first one on the not so new next generation of consoles, so maybe it's kind of acceptable, I'm sure it'll be better than star ocean though (which was sub par but a little enjoyable),
*waits for another great (non portable)tales game with high expectations now
>>guess this happens when games are in development for a long time
This is what I was wondering about. Interesting observation. +1.
WHAT? No levels!?? Blasphemy!!
Good. Leveling system is much a dinosaur as random battles while wandering a field, and it's completely ridiculous. If characters are going to get stronger let it be through skill and minor stat ups so you don't have characters shrugging off rifle rounds fired from early level enemies because your level is just that sexy--it's silly!
Always thought Betrayal at Krondor handled this perfectly
If you don't like that, play a different series. The FF fans have made it very, very clear they want these things.
Is there that overwhelming consensus you talk about regarding levels?
I'm a pretty average fanboy of the series and I consider the leveling up one of the most overrated features of the game.
Think about it, it strips the game from any real difficulty, almost anyone can pass these games if they spend several hours grinding.
Not only that but by doing so many people avoid using most of the tools the battle system offers and just spam really strong attacks.
You also, in some occasions have to spend time walking around in circles, entering and exiting areas, which can be tedious and boring in order to be able to move forward with the game.
IMHO difficulty introduced by requiring time and patience over skill and wisdom is cheap and should only be given as an option as the lowest level difficulty.
You're a fool, the level system facilitates players of all skill levels. You can low level run and it will be a challenge to serious players (though, I'm not sure I'd call it hard with all the healing items you get given you), while allowing people with no skill to finish the game by level grinding. If you find the games too easy then try playing through at a lower level, simple. Of course VIII messes this up, but you can try doing a limited magic run, or even a statistic-J free run, that's pretty good for a challenge.
Okay, everyone is going to buy it anyway.
LOL. You're absolutely right
The FF series has declined over all. When I first heard about the game, I was excited because it was made to seem like a fresh game on a new console and yadda yadda yadda, but after hearing reviews from the demo, and reading articles such as this, it kinda kills if for me. Though the real stake in the heart is that the gameplay is too linear. That hurts man, FF is known for good battles and story lines.
no one said the storyline is bad... it is just straightfoward...
for me, and i am a Atlus-style (SMT) fan, "non-essential content" is pretty important. (like the chocobo races on FF7 or the social links in Persona 3/4: you are not forced to do it, but it is cool... specially in persona)
Actually one guy did say the story was bad, they just omitted the spoilers that's all. For me one big "i'm gonna protect everyone guy!" is enough to turn me off from a game. I'm so sick of those cookie cutter characters..!
Be careful with people's opinions on these matters. A person sick of "protect everyone" characters may at the same time acclaim the story-telling of Xenogears and insipidly ridiculous characters like chaos, so one man's opinion should weight only about as much as a shaven pubic hair in your estimation.
Last remnant had also a rabid boy that was jumping around. It looks like they didn't learn.
SMT Persona 3 & 4 were the first time since FF7 that I'd actually felt something for the Characters, I didn't really care for the Chocobo Racing in FF7, but the Social Links in SMT were a bit of fun to divert you from just ploughing through the game and did something to flesh out the Characters.
As for Xenosaga, played 2 and exchanged it, unplayable garbage with an awful battle system.
Atlus should be given a stab at doing a FF and see where they can take it.
true the extra optional stuff would make the game more worthwhile... SMT and Tales series put a lot(or some?) of extras for some reason, and it extends not only the playtime but its a break from normal RPG gaming...
the good thing is that its optional...
I have a feeling most of this is exaggerated, especially given the time frame it's only been out a few days or so.
As for the linear crap, all FF have been linear up to a point usually resulting a in a vehicle (airship) of some kind allowing you to move about.
I'd have to see this game myself. Though the whole online shopping thing is ridiculous.
Usually though, you at least get to do some exploring and do whatever you want in a certain area before continuing to the next story point.
In FFXIII, you literally travel in a straight line. No towns to explore, no townsfolk to talk to, nothing.
ah, I believe, if they have time to make this game, why not make it a visual novel instead, and post it online, then we can all enjoy the story, with slight to no interaction...
Every time a new FF comes out everyone says it's going to mark the end of the franchise.
The franchise ended long ago after FF7, peaking in FF6.
Hah, stupid fan-boys always say the same thing.
I completely agree with you.
Also:
"There is next to no strategy or skill involved."
In a single player rpg, lol
single player rpg DO need some brains...
try to play Shin megami Ten sei 3: nocturne (no, it is NOT the persona 3)
tried it on HARD mode
you'll need lots and lots of brains and skills
You say this, but no-body said that about final fantasy 3 or 4, you just are too young to remember it. Admittedly 1 was meant to be the final, 2 was considered an absolute failure, and every game 5 on-wards had a pretty similar reaction as this. However each person gives up at their own point, I did at XI, some people will probably keep with square-enix until they die, just because they wouldn't know what to do without a final fantasy to look forward to; it won't die, because there are enough ridiculous fan-boys buying the game for it to be profitable.
This looks more like an action game moreso than a RPG.
"There are no levels."
Wasn't there no levels in ff10? And that was regarded as the best final fantasy by Japanese people. Why is this seen as a negative.
"The story is rubbish…"
I've been hearing mostly positives about this...
"The best tactic is almost always endlessly attacking. There is next to no strategy or skill involved."
Ummm....
"The whole game is completely linear until halfway through"
10 is pretty damn linear too...I enjoyed it a lot.
Seriously though, this shit is all over the internet. Mostly coming from people who have watched a couple minutes of streams. And isn't 2ch notorious for bashing on DQ9 and flooding Amazon with 1 star reviews cause they found some character annoying? I'm not saying this is like game of the year or anything, but please play the game first.
I thought along the same lines. I think X is a linear, terrible written, abortion of a game that only got decent once you got to the side quests at the end of the game. I was able to play through that. As long as XIII doesn't reach X levels of crappy character design and linearity, no problem.
In X you very much had a leveling up system, but a more in depth system.
In terms of combat, Square should look to better JRPGs like Shin Megami Tensei to add some strategy.
You know, everytime i play ff10 at night, i fall asleep right away... no town. just run in a straight line, run around, run, run, fight, movie, run..... i will buy FFXIII because i bought PS3 recently... but i dont expect much if it's like this....
10 was a crap I couldn`t force myself to finish. (12 was the same by the way). The battle system in 10 unprecedentally sucked.
I had a feeling it was gonna be like that but really, no levels...that's the reason why I people play rpg games if am right, everyone wants to know that his/her characters are growing in a certain way. This goes to show that Hironobu Sakaguchi's touch is what made the series really epic and worth playing.
even though ironically according to Sakaguchi himself he did pretty little for 7 and after?
its kinda funny about Sakaguchi fanboyism. the fanboys like to think Sakaguchi single-handedly did everything. but thats contrary to what Sakaguchi himself has said.
according to the man himself
FF6 = wasn't really his game. felt like creative control had been taken from him and dissipated to several people
FF7 = according to Sakaguchi himself he wasn't involved much past the initial planning stages as that was actually when Gooch started working on starting up his film studio. basically he paid more attention to his movie making than FF7.
FF8 = see FF7 as they were made at the exact same time.
FF9 = by intent the regular team wasn't involved. like FFXII later, it was supposed to be a reimagining by a totally new staff. he just got him name slapped on there.
FF10+ = off course this is post Sakaguchi bankrupting Squaresoft for a second time (people tend to forget he "saved" Square the first time from... Sakaguchi)
pretty much according to the Gooch himself, his "touch" hasn't been the driving creative force behind FF since FF5.
FF9=best
FF9 = shit
Anon 08:00 = shit
And it can be seen quite easily. Although 6,7,8 were great games in a way the best one was the fifth actually ... at least to me.
watched a dude playing online yesterday, It's a good hallway marathon simulation from what i've seen.
Whenever there is something popular around there is always a sad bunch of attention seeking trolls ready to shit all over it.
The linear complaint means nothing to me, all jrpgs are linear.
I won't get my copy till monday but at least I'll be able to understand it unlike the army of 'nihongou ga wakaranai' importers who'll attemtp to shit on a game they can't understand.
At the end of the day, sales are all that count. A million + served already will keep square happy and easily overshadow a few attention seeking haters.
I'd like to point out the irony in your Romanji being incorrect.
typo
I know there is no U
I'd like to point out the irony that it's spelled "romaji", not "romanji".
Good thing I don't like failure games like these, money saved!
I was really looking forward to this one, but by the looks and sound of it... seems like a big letdown.
Think back to the E3 trailers with amazing graphics.
A year or so later when they showed gameplay it looked 10x worse. But graphics aside, even the gameplay seems to be unappealing.
Linear maps in an RPG? No thanks.
Woah, what? FFXIII a failure? Wtf? I wasn't expecting this! What a shock!
Sorry but all your critics are mostly bullshit. Try to play it or better try to learn japanese and then play it again^^
quote]The whole game is completely linear until halfway through [approximately 20 hours].What is bad about that? FFX was linear too.
Ok understandable but i dont really like towns^^
And because of that the caracter developement and the story is much better
Whats bad about that?
LOL sure and bcuase sazh uses guns its like a shooter.... Totally ********.
You can kind of flee and also you can avoid battles
And the fights are much harder. I dont see this as a bad point.
Ok understanble
LOL do that and you will die ALOT and also get no rewards because like this these battles will take forever.
It looks fantastic
Good thing that this story isnt about snow or lightning :P
why is that bad?
LOL you can sell alot of things and get money this way. HAs this guy even played FFXIII?
Sorry but i dont know anything else to say.
If you cant speak japanese I guess its true^^
there are over 100 weapons in this game but if you cnat get score on fights you wont get good rewards. Also you can upgrade your items and weapons which will not only upgrade your stats but also give you new abilities or bomuses.
Tere are but not like level 99 or so. You level your weapons and you are leveling your jobs.
They didnt get full points because on of the reviewer compared it to FFVII which also only got 39 points^^
I think that you're not a demanding player :] . You're just playing everything from crap to a decent game :] .
You are not a serious RPG player, this is evident by your standing up for the honestly useless status screen, therefore anything you say about an RPG game (I seperate from table-top RPGs because a video-RPG clearly has no Role Playing and therefore is a completely different acronym) is not worth reading, let alone taking into consideration. Please next time you write a review about something you clearly have no clue about make this obvious from the start. I care not to argue with your other points, but many of them are stupid, ignorant, or a simply overly praising a game which does not deserve it.
tl:dr version:
First long post: This game isn't that bad.
First response: Your standards are less than mine.
Second response: You're an icky poo-head.
I didn't say You're an icky poo-head, just that the long post is talking about something he's made quite clear he doesn't understand, and thus honestly I'm not taking it seriously. I would do the same to anyone who needs to realise they can't talk for a community they don't even belong to, and this man does not belong to the RPG gamers community. I'm not making him any less than I, since I know perfectly well that I can only talk for male ballet-dancing community and the RPG players community, but I know this and would not bother speaking for another, I'm simply trying to teach the long poster the same manners as myself.
tl;dr version,
You're an icky poo-head = go to finishing school.
you are just linear player... you dont need level, you dont need open world, you dont need map. just like i play 10, every time, i feel sleepy with my hand on the controller....
i wonder with 10 become the best? PR?
DO NOT WANT
who cares
I just want to fuck lightning
Who doesn't? Maybe they'll remake this game with tentacle monsters..!
I don't think that was ever part of the game mechanics... before or after they fucked it all up.
I hope that every things being exaggerated. I haven't played a FF since 8 and I was really looking forward to getting 13 to get back into it all.
i dont think they could top 8's love story between rinoa and squall. i wanna play ff8 again but i dont have the cds!!
forced romance? =x
Troll? =x
They recently (17/12) added FVIII in PSN for download..
I'm having a blast with it, mostly because of nostalgia and all.. I don't mind linear games as long as they have a good story and atmosphere.. I'm wating for a solid review of FFXIII yet, but I think I'll buy it even if it's not that good
I like to see there's people that appreciate FFVIII's love story (and romance as a part of the FF franchise) as much as I do, I agree, it was really good by itself, I hope they can top it eventually.
As the anon @6:41 said, the atmosphere, story, characters, among other gameplay unrelated features, weigh more than those faults already found in the game, and, excluding the one about Snow being a cliched hero(which I hope they're exaggerating), don't really worry me that much.
"The best tactic is almost always endlessly attacking. There is next to no strategy or skill involved."
I have the game, and I can prove them wrong.
If all of the battles you encounter requires you to endlessly attacking you're in for a big, big, big trouble.
I think that you're just a noob :] .
It would be more accurate to say there are two types of battles - mindless ones where you hammer attack, and mindless ones where you hammer attack in between switching frantically between two or three Optima.
No, you miss the point.
First, by "endlessly attacking", you mean you do nothing but to input "attack" commands to solve the problem.
And that's NOT what FFXIII is all about.
And thus mindless hammer attack is NOT an option especially to boss where you have to break their chain bar to even start doing damage. Thus, You need to cast magic to fulfill the bar.
I'm not saying that this is a strategy or something, but it at least prove that you do not endlessly perform the same attack button to solve the problems. There is a big difference between mindlessly hammer attack and attack accordingly to win the battle.
As for frantically switching optimas, what's the problem in that? Some people prefer blindly assaulting and attacks like a noob (like those 2ch people) and switching optimas to play accordingly.
In the end, those who just WATCH to play the game will usually just blurt out what they SEE instead of experiencing it.
this sounds like the perfect final fantasy to me. i've always felt that too many choices distract me from the story. in essence what makes the series what it is.
Too many choices makes you part of the story...i personally like that
but again, i am an atlus fanboy and i liked the way things changes with what you decided in Devil Survivor
i'm not experiencing it as a story, if I'm the one writing most of it.
my only complain is the game is so damn linear, 20 hours in the game and its still 1 way only.
sex can be very linear too, is that a bad thing?
I mean its just in and out, in and out
how boring can it be!
well basically its like this
walk from a to b
fight monster
see event
fight more monster
walk from b to c
see event
fight monster
and repeat few time
fight boss
next chapter
and continue from start
What the hell, sex is nothing like that.
Depends on your girlfriend.
real life sex, linear? You're doing it wrong!
positions, different people, taste, voice, foreplay, toys, different places...
sex is not linear...
fapping to 2d girls in linear
Anal onanism guide begs to differ.
You're just a noob.
Variety is the spice of sex. Also: Life.
>If the main character in your party dies it is game over
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK THAT'S WHY I HATE THE PERSONA GAMES
Which one is the main character, anyway?
any, party leader dies and game over
there is live stream videos of ppl playing the game on http://www.justin.tv , if anyone want to check out the the actual gameplay themselves. Personally, I think the game is pretty good, very hard compared to past titles.
good thing i had a hunch that this game will suck. After all, ideas are limited within human minds. To come up with something truly epic will first require the remake of FFVII ;)
A re-make will clearly help the series go into a new generation. Honestly, it would be best they simply looked at other RPGs rather than sticking up their own ass, and even if they were to, they need to get away from FF VII fast, and get onto a good game, FF7 was one of the least balanced RPGs I've ever played, and the story really didn't have any motivation until disk three; seriously, fan-boys make me laugh.
ff7 was the bomb dude. they even made a wicked movie out of it because they knew people loved ff7 the best. the whole underdog cloud facing a badass super villain like sephiroth was just brilliant.
Hello there, welcome to the internet, you know, I have a kid your age!
Old people should be banned from the internet. Go away!
I THINK YOU'RE A MIDDLE GROUND!
you make me laugh. lol noob.
Well, I'm happy to see you are indeed of the mentality of FFVII fan-boys, maybe when you're my age you'll understand what a good game is :).
I also think FFVII was a truly seminal game which I hold in as high esteem as Planescape, Suikoden II, Parasite Eve, FFT, The Black Gate, Dark Queen of Krynn and Ultima Underworld.
I would very much like to see a remake, but they would need to up the difficulty.
I remember when they released the techdemo of ff7 for ps3; fucking square enix you cock-teasers
Square Enix should not even think about remaking FFVII until they remember how to create a great game or there will be a mountain of crushed memories and rage. By God there will be rage.
So the only way to help square is to remake a old game >_>.
A old game that sucked... man, they're really screwed.
The game certainly could have been much better, but it doesnt make it bad. As a flashy kick-show with a bit of controla under your finger it kicks ass
sigh
the japanese rpg game could collapse soon
for this reason
jrpg= metrosexual, gay and awful battles, linear
check http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/9/2008/12/squenix-character-design.jpg
west rpg= quality
i suppose that elder scroll V, could be the rpg in the next year
Hahahaha, god sir, you had me in stitches, the thought of elder scrolls being non-linear is just great, seriously sir, you have made my day!
>>metrosexual
*cough cough* Someone like Snow..?
"the japanese rpg game could collapse soon
for this reason"
Yep it's in major danger what with FF13 selling 1 million first day, DQ9 selling over 4 million in Japan alone. People have different tastes, these games will always exist in some form. Stop praising WRPGS like the second coming. There are bad rpgs on both sides.
Ah, how humorous..
Take a muscular body, put a metal plate armor on it and, shave the head and give him a huge ass hammer and voila, you have your WRPG character
Whoever made that reference to char design in J-rpg is a dumbfuck.
Yeoow, no shops? That's one of the concept I dread most when in RPGs (and one of the reasons why I freaking hate Xenosaga II). It feels like going to or living in a rural town where grocery shops and hospitals are non-existent...
im sick of the wrpg propaganda... rpgs are about STORYS. yes fallout was nice but story telling was not its strong suit. wrpgs thrive on multiple endings and dialog choices. jrpgs thrive on strong character development that requires a detachment from the choose your own adventure formula.
Bad score? It got a 39 out of 40!
I suppose this is a step down, as many Final Fantasys have gotten a full 40, but Jesus, it still scored tremendously high.
As for the criticisms - meh.
Seems to be complaints about liner maps and lack of towns and whatnot, and personally I couldn't give a crap about those things. That's not why I play Final Fantasy.
If the story is good, I'm good. Simple as that.
Granted, in the article the story was criticized, but that was only one person's opinion, and it seemed to be directed on one character's story line only.
I'll still be buying this game, and I doubt I'll be disappointed. (Or at least, as disappointed as this obviously grossly exaggerated article would have me be.)
The story isn't bad as far as I've played so far, but honestly I do hope that's all you care about, because it's pretty much a 40 hour movie.
story is not bad at all, presentation could be of more freedom. combat is pretty good for me, especially when fighting the machine king. quite exciting.
People don't pay 60 bucks for movies(or shouldn't), when real movies are 20 bucks. If a games main selling point is it's movie presentation then it's not a game anymore, just a movie.
Then just watch a movie or cutscenes on youtube :} .
I'm willing to wager that square enix paid famistu or whatever they're called, off for them to give it a good review. I won't lie that it's sad though, it seems as if it had so much potential.. :(
shopping online? Are they serious?
The whole game is completely linear until halfway through [approximately 20 hours].
--- Nearly every Final Fantasy has been linear for half the game (FF6, 7, 8 , 9, 10 was linear pretty much all the way through and was still great, even XII which was a very open world game was still linear for like the first 10 hours)
There are hardly any towns.
--- ???? Ermmmm, so? What exactly is the complaint here? There is just ONE town in Persona 4, did I hear people complaing? Really, this complaint needs a lot more elaboration.
The party is always fixed. The whole game just repeats the movie-battle sequence over and over [In fact the progression is closer to movie-run-battle-run-movie-boss-movie-run-battle…].
--- If that is really true then yeah I guess thats kind of annoying, but has everyone forgotten FF10? And since when have computer games NOT been a sucession of gameplay>story>gameplay>story?
There are rather a lot of movies.
--- I guess this can be a good AND bad thing.
Moving around is like a long marathon.
--- Same point repeated for dramatic effect? Or is there actually a guy with a starting pistol at the beginning of the game and a white flag at the end? And while we're talking about that, when exactly would a game requiring a lot of traversal NOT be like a marathon? Moving without having to use your limbs?
The whole game system is just a clone of FF10.
--- As opposed to a level up system?
Ok so when are people going to decide if its a good or bad thing that its similar to FF10?
You can’t flee battles [You can’t avoid most battles either as there is no sneaking past enemies, including weak ones].
--- Yeah I could see that getting annoying.
Your party is completely healed after each battle.
--- Is that bad? It just means the game is focused on each battle being difficult rather than you micromanaging you MP throughout a dungeon, which actually mostly consists of going into the menu, healing all your players so many times and then using an ether, wow, that made it ALOT harder.
If the main character in your party dies it is game over [There are only ever 3 characters in battle, often less, and often fixed].
--- Thats kind of annoying, yeah, well apart from the 3 character complaint. I dont see the problem in that. But remember that most FFs have had fixed parties for at least half of the game.
The best tactic is almost always endlessly attacking. There is next to no strategy or skill involved.
--- Definitely NOT.
The summons’ transformation scenes are a joke [i.e. Odin turning into a horse].
--- Are people forgetting that its a mechanical horse? The whole cocoon world is pretty mechanical.
The story is rubbish… [Spoilers omitted, but complaints centre on Snow’s constant and cringe inducing insistence that he is a hero and will “protect” whatever it is the antagonists are menacing this time]
--- I dont doubt it that one or more of the characters will be annoying, but I can live with that.
Shopping is only done at “online” shops on save points, with no proper shops to be found.
--- Dont really know what is meant by this.
There have been next to no changes from the demo.
--- There have.
The status screen displays no real information.
--- I guess I will take your word for it.
There are no levels.
--- There were no levels in FFX, or FFII for that matter, both great games.
Really, i'm all open for the possibility that FFXIII is a bad game, hell i've purposely not been gettign hyped up for it incase it was, but you really need to make better points for it to be considered bad.
Most of those points are moot, hypocritical or just not elaborated enough to make any sense.
did you copy and paste this from somewhere or did you write all these..
"Nearly every Final Fantasy has been linear for half the game (FF6, 7, 8 , 9, 10 was linear pretty much all the way through"
Sorry, but FF6 and FF7 didn't have linear gameplay. The criticism here is not that the story is linear, but that the game play is. FF6 and FF7, even FF8 to some extent, had some large part of the game which exploration played a key part in the game (FF6's world of ruin comes to mind). I can only assumed you've never played FF6 if you think it's linear.
Ive played and finished all ffs.
You think FF7 wasnt linear? Midgar was point A to B for like 10 hours, then you had the world map, where you could only travel to one further location, until the end of disc 1.
In FF6 the first half of the game DID have linear gameplay, as the story is what drove the gameplay along. There werent a lot of places to go really.
Of course all of this changes when the world finally opens up, and what ive heard and seen of FFXIII, it looks like it really opens up when you get to Pulse.
Sounds pretty similar to me. Maybe people have forgotten what the old games actually played like?
no, i assume he has played FF6.
i'm assuming you, like many jrpg world map advocates, don't know what linear/nonlinear actually means.
world map != nonlinear
world map = big fat linear path, as opposed to FFX/XIII's thin narrow linear paths
but its still linear.
sure there was a huge valley to wander about in... for what? to get 100 random encounters only to go to the linearly narrative dictated exit town on the other side? that is STILL linear.
nonlinear would be, for example, Dragon Age. after Lothering, you can proceed through the game's factions in any order. you can leave one and start another faction at any time. that is nonlinear. NO Final Fantasy has ever done that.
Linear = A always to B. this is the format of EVERY FINAL FANTASY EVER.
Nonlinear = A to B or C or D or etc. FF6, 7, 8, etc never did this.
at least not until the near ends of the games when the majority of the bigger side quests open up.
and even then, side quests don't really make it nonlinear as its not like they are narrative crucial elements.
they just help obfuscate the linearity.
I think the point here is a lot of the FF games with a world map (while linear) gave it a false sense of non linearity and that is what a lot of players want. If they "feel" free even if they are not then as far as they are concerned they are not playing a linear game. But if youre gonna make it obvious by making people run up and down corridors for 20 hours of course people are gonna complain.
If I was going to walk someplace from point a to point b I would prefer the wide open space (world map if you will) to straight hallway. Its all about perception and thats really all that matters.
You are mis-understanding. The problem is linearity, but over linearity. Final fantasy games give little off-shots in dungeons to get some different treasures, and mini-games, and side-quests throughout the game to keep you interested, while giving some minor incentives to go back, but you don't have to. This isn't non-linearity but delayed linearity: you'll always go from a to b, but you can stop of at c if you wish; from what I've been seeing of XIII this is not the case. Even simply choosing path 1 or path 2 would be nice, but I've not seen that either. Final Fantasies are linear, but most are not as linear as X and XIII, even in the early parts of the game.
You make it sound like communist China. "gave it a false sense of non linearity and that is what a lot of players want. If they "feel" free even if they are not then as far as they are concerned they are not playing a linear game."
"The best tactic is almost always endlessly attacking. There is next to no strategy or skill involved."
And this is different from every other Final Fantasy... how?
I bet there is no dungeon exploring to do in this game, so it a no for me
Hrmm...oh well, let's wait FF14 now then, shall we?
Yeah . It'll be the first linear world mmorpg :D xD
No Thanks.
Enjoy your updated version of FF11.
Im still going to play it when it comes out (like probably all of you)...I will decide for myself if the game is worth playing like a TRUE gamer
I hate to say it but I think they were aiming at the WoW style market and went a little overboard.
Sorry but like on any final fantasy, it will always be linear until you get your ship or thingy to go around so you can't use that as an argument.
The story is left to the taste of the person who plays.
The no leveling part, is boring for me, but what the hell they are trying to implement a new system for rpgs, so they are bound to bother people with this.
The videos and this being like a sequence of fight and non stop marathon videos is like Final fantasy x, and if remember right, it was among the most successful final fantasy ever, and if the story is a clone of final fantasy x then even better, IMO. maybe it will get like in final fantasy VII to final fantasy IX (they will improve the story and characters) which would be awesome since final fantasy x is awesome.
The fact that the party is already fixed only ads to the story having actually some sense inside the fight you know Van fighting and actually doing the job in final fantasy xii, when he is just a kid dealing in adults business (expression).
This is mostly my opinion I haven't played the game and haven't seen any videos except for the trailer, so my comment (can't called this half-assed thingys arguments) come from people either trolling, or like usual calling the end of something.
VISUAL NOVEL FTW?
Game series went to shit as soon as Hironobu Sakaguchi and company left Square.
Well, since I just beat the first Final Fantasy on NES, maybe I could jump to this one since it's so simple.
It doesn't really matter how bad it is, all those chumps bought it anyway.
Oddly enough this won't stop me from picking up the game anyway..
in fact comparing this game with older ones is a little unfair... videogame market is different, people's mind is different... heck even the public is different.
things are way more commercial now... people have less patience for sidequests, magicites, chocobo races, secret overpowering bosses and so on...
when videogames were "nerdier", the standards were different... they were making the RPG genre and pushing it to its limits... today almost every good idea have already been used... there is little more to invent i think...
So you're saying, people want a less entertaining, crappier RPG that doesn't give people any choices for a story, with different endings, nor does it give them more time to absorb themselves to get into side quests and see particular sides of each character in the party either because people just rather get straight to the ending? What's the point of playing the game if not the actual journey towards the end..??
People are becoming dumb idiots who say they want to play games but in reality they want to collect achievements and watch pantsushots. Game industry is going straight to the hell. At least there are indies that dont suck.
I somehow forgot my point - they say they want to play game, that they want interactivity - but when game offers interactivity and challenge it immediately becomes "too hard", "annoying to play" or "game where you miss too much content without consulting walkthrough.". Fuck these guys, because of them most games are too boring and easy.
lawl megaphail square enix <_<
Oh well with FFXIII out of the buy list I'll be sure to pick up Resonance of Fate instead.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN "NO LEVELS"? FUCK. How am I supposed to level-grind, dammit?!
It makes sense why FFXIII was one of the most advertised Final Fantasy titles now...
And I'm not surprised people are falling for it.
It's going to be a 70 dollar movie. Seems fair for it's length I guess.
Almost none of those complaints sound like bad things at all. Doesn't Vagrant Story not have any towns? No shops? God forbid Square though HEY, LET'S SAVE THEIR TIME AND JUST PUT THE SHOP AND SAVE POINTS TOGETHER!
The only problem I can see here is that it is too easy and the story may not be good.
The problem there, and the problem I had with VS is that is looses the scoop, and you loose touch with the world. It feels too clinical for you to get into the characters or the story. If you play purely for the system, then sure I guess it's good, but honestly that sounds pretty dumbed down too from what I'm hearing...
so leveling is like in saga frontier??
sankakucmplex staff = xbox 360 blowers
Perhaps what they refer to as linear is not the story progression but the way the maps are played out. The issue is that the route from point a to point b is linear with no detours for you to explore and find secrets.
Doesn't surprise me. Final Fantasy died at FFVII, peaking at FFVI, which was clearly the best.
"Your party is completely healed after each battle."
This is fucking ridiculous and casual.
No, Final Fantasy peaking at FFT
"Live is short!Bury, steady sword!!
Text changes in the remake were annoying
In reality its sad if people go along and blindly agree with this article without forming their own opinions. Every game these days generate more critisism that love or interest these days and more so than these jaded so called gamers. Just spend 5 minutes browsing a site like neogaf and you will know what im talking about. The fanbase (these so called hardcore gamers) is why videogames will never be considered an art form and I am ashamed to tell people that I consider myself to be one of them. Uh, my enthusiasm for gaming wanes as the months go on not because of the games themselves but because of the people who play them.
Thats kind of silly. Why don't you just stop reading gamer comments? Its not like they're impossible to ignore.
Or you could you know just leave them to their thing and play your own games. It's not hard to just play a niche game like disgaea or soul nomad or any SMT game pre P4.
I've actually always preferred niche titles. The developers usually have more freedom to create their games. Much less pressure to please publishers, fans and the general public. The games typically reflect a more sincere effort.
Same here I love RPGs that fly under the radar of the public eye. Bought Crisis Core when it came out meh ending was great, but I playing class of heroes and LOVING IT =D(plus other low key games).
They say bad things about FF12 all the time, but the fact of the matter is that even if its the general feeling that its a bad game it doesnt make it a fact. No matter how much people hate the game it doesnt change the fact that I play it and own a copy of it in which I very much enjoy playing. Its not like somebody is going to come to my home and take my copy of the game from me. No matter how much others hate it I will continue to play and love the game, so people should not worry. The game is coming out if people dont like it then thats fine, but you can continue to play it even if they dont like it.
Even if this game any good I still wont play it...solely because the main characters is a woman
she's a trap, it revealed 1/2 way through the game that she has a penis
lightning has balls
she punches the crap out of snow numerous times, she's awesome, not a girly girl type. Don't let her gender put you off, she's a good lead.
She is rather splendid. Even Vanille is capable of handling herself.
you fag ?
FF10 was a good game, made it worth buying a PS2 back when the game came out. FF10x2 now, talk about difficulty in learning. All the new attacks took a different area to ready and use then it became too much and I never finished FF10x2. Sorry FF12 lost me about 2/3 way thru and not going to get this one for any reason. Most of the PS2 games I bought were made by Square Enix so I know what to expect and have gone as far as I can down that remedial controller method of play.
Fuck your shit 2ch.
I'm gonna play it no matter what your stupid ass opinions are. Every single FF has been amazing so far so i know already now that i wont be disapointed
You have some Squaresoft sperm around your mouth.
FF4 is a great game and it's linear for practically the whole game. I don't see FF13 being linear a drawback.
While locals maybe in a line the dungeons in FF4 were not.
This concerns me. But I should play it myself before I believe what anyone else says.
A lot of those complaints seem like wank or repeating the same thing. Well, first of all, the fact that linear gameplay is cursed as it is never made sense to me, I can understand the appeal but a game won't be ruined for me because of it, since even "non-linear" games tend to turn out the same way each playthrough unless it's open world, because players usually just play through the most efficient way.
That said, I do wish they kept more of FFXII's characteristics, that game was hard to finish but for me that was because there was such an insane amount of content in it. I would say having too much game for your money is usually a good thing no? I do agree that game quality has, on a whole, been down since Square Enix formed, but with the industry being the way it is I don't blame them. When things pick back up though, SE needs to start innovating, they can't last on remakes forever.
Ive been feeling sincce ff x that their quality has been going down and this proves it, they are removing a lot of elements that made me want to play this game, an open world map that let me explore even if it was useless the feeling of exploring how far I could travel, leveling up, challening fights that kept turning more into "cinematic hours" and annoying characters
I don't know if its was even possible to dumb down the Final Fantasy series.
All of you will buy it anyway and then Squeenix will just make more crap games that you will buy and defend endlessly.
its been crappy for a while, and if they keep aiming for these cinematic experiences and keep doing these crappy games they should just make movies instead, also when they need money theyll just make another crappy game and tie it to ff 7 so people buys it out of nostalgia regardless of their quality meh
You know XII was going in the right direction but then of all things the FF fans were the ones to complain about how much it sucked. Figures....
I quite enjoyed FFXII's new take on the Final fantasy series, but this sounds like a big disappointment.
Half of these criticisms are related to gameplay -- since when did people play FF for the gameplay?
half on gameplay half on story line?
Is there something other than gameplay to FF? The story lines have never been especially engrossing, and the way they expected an emotional response from Tidus', err, vanishing in X was downright painful.
I play FF5 for gameplay, cause if i'm gonna play a game for like 25-30(or even 40 hours) it better have some damn good gameplay.
is just they have too high hope for the game, and nothing with ever meets your expextation
Too high hope? Nothing that was promised or hyped by SE is even present. The White System is just the ATB system except you can input more than 1 command at once but by sacrificing control of your party members.
shopping online? Never had a PS3/X-box 360 If that's the case of every game that cannot be played offline then forget it. I won't buy those 2 console. :-b
No they meant you buy things from the save points and not from an actual shop in-game. So it's in-game online shopping.
Whatever floats your boat 2ch, whatever floats your boat...
NICE BOAT.
What kind of argumentation is that? o_o only some idiots rating a game, that's also why animes have shitty rates and reviews, though they are not...
an rpg for the masses. makes financial sense.
In my opinion the last great Final Fantasy was VII. It's been a down hill slide ever since. What's been really killing it for me the past few games is the god-awful English voice acting. Square Enix needs to leave the option for Japanese voices with English subtitles. I play games like these for their Japaneseiness, not to hear the voice acting quality of a Saturday morning cartoon character. Every time Tidus spoke I wanted to turn off my speakers.
X-2 was way too saccharine.
XII was so bland and boring from the get-go that I played it twice for about 20 minutes and never touched it again.
IX was the last one I got very far into but the characters were so silly looking that I just lost interest at some point.
VII was alright but the draw system blew on a variety of levels. They seem to feel the need to reinvent the combat system with each game now and sometimes it's just stupid.
I used to get excited when I would hear a new Final Fantasy title was coming soon. However after the last 2-3 games I just don't find myself caring anymore. If Final Fantasy XIII comes to the PC (and has English subtitles and Japanese voices!) I will probably pick it up. But I think the Final Fantasy I grew up with and loved is pretty much dead.
Merging with Enix was the worst thing that ever happened to Square, IMO.
Considering the alternative was Squaresoft's continuing fall into bankruptcy, I fail to see how Enix's timely rescue of the company with the merger could be in any way worse than what Square was doing to itself.
Or are you implying that they're dragging Enix down? >_>
Shut up... squaresoft free themself without Enix help, thx to FF that you hate
Right, because ENIX never made any good games.
SNES Era/Valkyrie Profile anyone?
Er.. They lip-synched again the entire game in the english version... It would be impossible to leave the option for japanese voices. It's not that bad when you compare to games like Star ocean 4, Now that was horrible..
Just get over it
Stop being an asshat and learn japanese if you want to play the game with the original voices
VII didn't even have voices! Just mute the damn thing if your own native language bothers you so much.
Japan gets all bent out of shape because there is no grindan. Typical nihon scum.
Before I go buying any criticisms of the game I need to actually play it (I'll rent if I'm that worried). I've been steered wrong before by people crying about the way things change in a game, only to later play and find it to be a golden experience (I'm looking at all the "Tekken players" who bitched about the bound system in particular).
wtf if this game sucks then 90% of other RPG is even worser !!!
Fuck the haters, Im still buying this game.
That's the spirit.
yup ff sucked from the first game ever made. what sucked then sucks now hahaha. i like the movie graphics tho, they always kick ass.
"Your party is completely healed after each battle."
WHAT.
"The best tactic is almost always endlessly attacking. There is next to no strategy or skill involved."
I've always found that to be the case, actually.
Too bad it's already a sucess since millions of people pre-ordered it.
I dont care what people say about how bad a game it is..........I WILL STILL PLAY IT LIKE A TRUE GAMER !!
-----Everyone has different tastes in games so maybe they didn't like it because every person is DIFFERENT!!!!-
you're a pretty cool guy, true gamer and doesnt afaid of anything
Or spending 70 dollars on it? You're going to rent right?!
by true gamer do you mean slapping down the bones because it has the FF name? I've been finding myself playing more non main stream games lately(NIS, Gust, Atlus published games). All this main stream stuff is getting old fast, appealing to the crowd with graphics does not make it a good game. I remember when persona came out on the psp people who played P3 or 4 first hated it's classic game play(even though they all played the same in a since just one was 1st person the other was 3rd). This main stream crap is killing the gaming industry because who needs to take risks if you can still make money (like EA sports), and gamers are to stupid they cry foil just because it looks different without playing it first.
Just like Modern Warfare 2! :P
"The whole game is completely linear until halfway through [approximately 20 hours]."
They did warn us actually
Ah, remember that time before the internet when, if there ever were an unreasonable ammount of complains about a game based on either trivial things, or stuff that had been previously praised, you would never hear of it? I miss those times, when I could play a game, and for the lack of internet forums would never hear a trolling review of it, picking it appart as if it were a piece of utmost shit not worth even a penny, for, once again, trivial reasons.
Call your internet provider and tell them to disconnect your service.
...Yeah, it's that simple.
Idiot.
"You can’t flee battles [You can’t avoid most battles either as there is no sneaking past enemies, including weak ones]."
Pussies.
I gonna play this anyway...but I haven't play any good FF since the PSX...the PS2 ones sucked horribly.
FF XII was a god game..but this game is not the "jump" I was espected....
Yeah I also liked FF12.
oh come on u mindless mass, devote urself to XIII like u did to endless eights.
Honestly, I'm willing to concede to a game with terrible gameplay as long as its presentation is inspiring in some way. As someone who sucks horribly at all forms of art, I can appreciate the shallow waters that thirteen is probably clinging onto.
Still, it baffles me that game developer interviews are so freakishly misleading. 13 is definitely an example of such. We reinvented this, made that better. Wut.
If a game has terrible gameplay it's not a good game. If you want a movie watch a movie, I don't wanna pay 60 bucks for a game with crap gameplay just because it "looks nice".
these all seem to be the frustrating things i know and love from ff games lol. except the no levels which i don't understand.
I don't really care. Atlus and Persona have been my favorite company/series for awhile now. So when is Persona 5 coming?
+1
While FF was fun back in the day, it can't possibly beat Persona right now.
/adds self to waiting for Persona 5 queue
sad to see faggots and fanboys defending a terrible game, just because it has the FF name slapped on it
I FUKKIN KNEW THIS GAME WAS GONNA END UP BEING SHIT.
All my final fantasy fanatic friends were like NO MAN ITS GONNA BE TIGHT. But i kept saying it looked sub par.
Your party is completely healed after each battle.
THIS!
Fuck, that killed it for me. I really hate that in RPG's.
idk...i love the feature. you dont have to wander around with 30% health bleeding to death - blind and cursed cause you forgot to stock up(or restock) on Antidote or Remedy.
It's called micro-managing, you're meant to learn how to do it to play an RPG.
I dont hate this one, as long it par with the difficulty
Man, it is so easy to judge a game that I've never played.
So like, my friend has it, and he tells me the battle system is crap-on-a-wiggle-stick because it's not active enough. This game must suck, right? Good thing I don't need to actually see it in action to create an informed opinion thanks to this here interweb, right?
God, that was easy. Guess I might as well sleep the rest of the week away now that my contribution to society has been solidified.
There are two problems with this game: the fact that there are no "towns" and the linear GAMEPLAY (not story, assfags). Most of the FFs disguise the fact that you only have so many choices to make with a large world or a bunch of sidequests. Even after you explore and run around doing errands for people you still have to return to "save the crystal!" or "stop time compression" (what?). Also, if your characters are strong enough, why bother using magic or summoning or whatever? If an attack or two kills my enemy, then that's good to me.
Sure, having no levels feels awkward for a FF game, but 10 didn't have levels, and it never affected me in the slightest. The rest of the game, however, wasn't too exciting.
The only thing that really gets under my skin is that you are healed after every battle. What the hell? I'm not sure if this is an indication that the battles will be fiendishly hard or they just wanted to throw in a random change. And no, I have yet to actually play the game, so the points I made are based solely on those raised in this article. Sankaku has a tendency to mercilessly rape the subjects of its articles...
"The only thing that really gets under my skin is that you are healed after every battle. What the hell?"
Word, this trend is a little bit annoying, like all those FPS games these days who prefer to have a health regeneration system as opposed to the traditional health pick-up system. They do it because it makes things easier on the level designers, streamlines the checkpoint save system implementation somewhat, and means the player never has to back-track for a health pick up - something which game designers view as undesirable as it breaks the flow.
But despite this I still don't like this trend, especially when it's applied blindly; The news that Deus Ex 3 will use such a system hit me particularly hard. In a Deus Ex game I'd expect to have to micro-manage this sort of thing. That was part of the game...
The majority of everything here is what I thought was crap about FF:Crisis Core, yet everyone appeared to love that game and regard it so highly...
In which case, Crisis Core is my blame for everything bad in this game, as the audience there pretty much told square "IT WORKS!"...
It's because everyone thought Final Fantasy XII was too extensive, and now people miss all that extra stuff to do for Final Fantasy XIII. 3-4 years ago, Square Enix did a questionire about keeping all that extra options like it was on FFXII, and it got alot of feedback from that and I quote "FFXII IS TOO DAMN COMPLICATED" " PLZ MAKE FFXIII EASIER PLZ" but that's to sum it up of what the feedback was.
Of course it could be easier to blame Square Enix, because for one, they shouldn't of listen to the fans on that because of a generation of people that aren't used to role play games.
But yeah, I'm going to have to blame Square Enix for 90% screwing up the game and 10% of the fans as well. Who cares what I think anymore...
Next month is going to be so bad in this world...
it's more half and half, fans screw everything up.
SquareEnix is an abomination.
Ouch Square Enix, ouch.
Still worth it considering it's a 40 hour movie for 70 dollars....
I would think it better to invest that 70 bucks in a quality game, movie, anime, hentai, etc. instead of buying this abomination. It doesn't do the movie or game aspect very well at all.
I dunno, I still want to play it for myself before I completely write this game off. Titles in the series since VII have been lacking, but they weren't terrible. A lot of people started bitching with VIII and haven't stopped since.
Nothing is going to compare to VII, and if you want to play the same recycled bullshit all the time, there's always a new Mario Bros. title just around the corner.
This game obviously isn't going to be the killer app that everyone was expecting/hoping for, but just because it's not the greatest game ever, it shouldn't be completely dismissed before we get our hands on it.
I agree... Ar TOnelico III will be so MUCH better!
This.
Can't wait! Ar tonelico changes it up with every installment, I think the battle system and character designs for III look super interesting. Since they added music crafting as well as bringing over the item crafting (I assume they're bringing it over anyway) there'll be a whole new element to fighting. Not to mention that each Reyvateil now has three other personas with their own names and strengths, it'll be like having your own bishoujo army... so yeah, I'm really really looking forward to it!
Those who are bashing this game already are the same people who consider FF8, FF10, and even FF10-2 to be great games. Irony much?
But that aside, I do not see a problem with linearity in gameplay. most RPH's tend to be that, and somehow everyone is able to omit that and say "this game is teh awesomest EVAR1!!" I'm all for objectivity, but I see none in these criticisms.
Looks like I'll have to see for myself, but I don't think it will be as bad as people already claim it to be.
FFVIII and FFX-2 were good games; saying that I'm not saying this is a bad game, just not great, which hurts because of all the expectations.
FF8 was horrible. After they made FFVII, they decided to mess the next installment by a ridiculous plot that was forced to progress, as it didn't feel like it went along naturally, and the battle system was just bad. Nothing about the game was, or is, redeemable, except for maybe the music.
FF10-2 was just a huge bowl of fan service, nothing more.
FF13, though it may be "linear", looks more promising than you seem to realize, as you believe it's below the value of either games I just mentioned.
FF8 was driven by an episodic force I'l admit, but the characters reaction to that force was believable and often humorous, and the story was silly at times, but not as bad as people make it out to be. As for the battle system I assume you mean junction as the battle system was just pretty standard ATB, though the limit re-load trick I guess was a little game breaking; either way, I liked it, it was overly powerful and made the game ridiculously easy, but it was interesting none the less. Honestly the only complaint I have is the romance being a little forced and the brokenness of the limit system, but it was an interesting game, with a fair story, even if one a little too western influenced for most people taste. Also the side-quests were well spaced and a lot of it really did well in creating the world, especially the Laguna sequences, giving the world a deeper sense of history, even if only the short term was ever actually mentioned in them.
As for FFX-2 the story was rubbish and the fan-service unbearable, but it had a great sense of humour which is something entirely missing for X, and made the ridiculousness of Spira seem almost acceptable. More importantly it had a really fun battle system, which kept you on your toes, wasn't too complicated for the speed it went for and wasn't too simple either. The forcing you into wait mode was really annoying in battle, and the stories lack of any real motivation was really annoying, but it was a fun ride which was more reason for me to keep playing than 'chase Sephiroth because we assume you have a boner for him.'
FFXIII has given me no reason to believe it has a particularly interesting system, has alienated people from character stats, has gotten rid of alot of the feeling of the world, hasn't got the great sense of humour I wish more console RPGs had, and just doesn't feel like an interesting full world to me (admittedly I haven't played it long, but still).
As for better than, I would advise you learn english, I said FFXIII isn't great, and FFVIII and FFX-2 were good. Positives clearly go fair, good, great, superb not being great isn't the same as not being good; I've not played enough to say if it's not good, but I hope so. For the record FFIV DS and FFIX are the only FFs I consider superb, with great taking FFIV, FFV, FFVI and FFIII DS, the rest being good except for II and XI which are both fair... XIII is obviously not included since I haven't placed it yet.
I thought FF5 was the best.
Hopefully this is all just bs....Cause I will be seriously pissed if this is another ff 12.....or 10....and please don't tell me they are pulling off another Xenosaga...I don't need a freaken movie game. Truthfully I would like to know when graphics became the corner stone of gaming.....what happen to story and gameplay...who gives a damn how nice it looks.
I ask this every time someone mentions any Metal Gear Solid after the original PS one.
dammed 200 ++ trolls !!!!
this is not same like Endless Eight
If you think this game is boring don't buy it.
They have work for many years for this plz show some respect.
if they want peoples money they should listen to the people who are going to buy it.
after putting so much effort to advertise FFXIII, Sankaku surprisingly reports a defaming judgment on the game. Well done.
maybe PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are planned to be a beta testers for PC
Suddenly, the PS3 version becomes the beta test for the 360. Sony shits bricks, Microsofts bribery pays off and all is good with whe world.
I'd fucking laugh SO HARD.
Shutup people, you`re still gonna buy it and play it.
Final Fantasy & everyone = fate.
it figures, with a president that believes that videogame consoles are a thing of the past.
lets just hope that FF versus XIII isnt as shitty and linear as this game, apparently its gonna have a world map like previous FF(pre-FFX).
Come on SE whats the matter with you
Is anyone really surprised? I mean this is Square we're talking about here.
I am going to approach this game on the mindset of an Action RPG, lots of eye candy, and involving storyline over researching forums for the best character multi build with clone knights of the round materia chain.
yes, I will do that, because I will play the game for Lightning.
If I'm buying this game, I'll probably be just playing around with the camera
great idea, anon
So when is Square Enix going to merge with Atlus?
Sounds like they stole an idea from Xenosaga with the shops being in the save points...
Every time that FF tries to make a major change in the game dynamics, it seems to slip backwards than going forward...
so the only side quests available are some chocobo digging game and mob hunts?
if so, are they even half decent excuses to tack on more hours to the game or they're just plain boring?
i think the battle system like FFX-2 is the best yet... why, oh why they killed old turn-base system?
Ugh, this is just pitiful. It seems as if Square REALLY dumbed this game down in order to appeal to a wider variety of people...not surprising, though.
This game, more than any FF game since VII, seems really desperate to be the next Final Fantasy VII and recapture that huge franchise appeal. You could see it in the art design and the sci-fi world, and now you see it with how they've oversimplified the gameplay. While it's true that VII simplified some things when compared to the SNES titles, those were small changes. This game goes overboard with the simplification. Instead of just streamlining things, it went full retard.
What's really sad is that after the huge leaps forward made by XII (smooth integration between battle and field, a unique fast-paced combat system, a story written above a 6th grade level...) ALL of its innovations have been shitcanned in favor of this crap.
This is because of failbox aka rrodbox they degrade the game because of gaybox.
Just how the suckstation made the N64 look like crap when the N64 could do better 3D with the ZBuffer.
Interesting to see.
That people love to hate. And that SquareEnix failed such a easy one-shot win that FF usually is.
I can just laugh at it all and wonder how the journalists will try to cover it up and how they will motivate a good grade.
With this being a single line game, makes one wonder: Is this the result of FFXIII going multi instead of being exclusive to the PS3?
All in all. With this new info I´ve been less and less interested in getting this game.
I don't really think a lot of movies is a bad thing. I'm confident I'll like this game. Everybody seemed to hate ff12 but I loved it. I also liked ff10. I think maybe people are expecting too much?
Here: People who are susceptible to 2ch's and 2chan's trolling and people who haven't played the game.
I mean, so what if a handful of faggots in the internet say that this game sucks, would you outright believe it even if you haven't played it yet. This is what I was trying to say in the last FFXIII article:
NOTHING CAN SATISFY YOU GAMING CONSUMERS.
Squeenix cannot just give in to what you want. If they gave in to what fans of older FF series want, the franchise would die off easily. The franchise would be much boring. This is why FFX onwards were attempts to break FF. They wanted to appeal to a wider audience now, not just a handful of fans who rant for shit in the internet and who don't know two cents about the game and only hate it to join the bandwagon.
I say you wait for March and play it.
As for me, I'm enjoying every bit and piece of this game.
18:45 here
Also, don't give me that VERSUS XIII IS THE REAL XIII shit. It just won't work.
To me nothing can top FF5 =D.
What's worst than a linear exploration RPG?
In the early FF series (1-4), you can wondering around into the wrong territory... ambushed by overpower enemies, which you can't possibly defeat until much later in the game... Try to escape but failed & get your entire team wipe-out - you just lost hours of progressions & levels.
Repeat that a few more times, & your interest to continue the game will diminished to ZERO.
omaigot, no town exploration? i tot towns r the elements of RPG, especially JRPG!? No lvl up? wtf?!?!
Whats the problem with linear? I like it, not too much hassle.. not waste time running around headless. I dont have that time anymore. Just want to enjoy, quick, have fun, enjoy a great story, great music, great visuals, great experience, a great game. FFXIII has everything. I'll save the endless grinds and exploring for XIV MMORPG, where you need to know things, FFXIII.. just want to enjoy and be over with. Glad i can save energy for XIV. Thank you SE.
Enjoy your FF, fanboy.
Meanwhile I'll go back to playing Megaten games on the ps2 while I wait for Atelier Rorona to come to the west.
he's no fanboy, sounds ridiculously casual to me.
Seriously I still don't see the problem with the game.
I'd like to see half the nutcases on here whining about FF and jumping down Square's throat to go and make a better fuckin game. As if they could do any better with their shitty as cliche ideas (more than likely).
Half the faggots posting on her are just incredibly pickyass teenagers who can't get over their weirdass homones. BOO HOO SQUARE ISN'T MAKING 'FFVII'-like games anymore.
GTFO and on with the past.
"LINEAR GAMEPLAY..FAIL"— No stfu and gtfo. Go play one of those lameass FPS if you want freedom. It's a fuckin RPG which SHOULD focus on Story and Character Development. FFS. Whiny hellholes on here.
LOL did somebody just insult your grandmother?
Grow the fuck up.
It's one thing to say YOU don't like it, but another to attack it.
"Traditional". You want traditional? Go play DRAGON QUEST because this is —FINAL FANTASY—. God, people are stuck in the 90s and can't get over the fact that things CHANGE.
Lol, weaaboo fags whining over FF.
"I want another FF just like FFVII". Yeah.. no. GTFO over that game. And for all those dickheads clinging to a reviewer's nutsack, uhh, how about you play the actual fuckin game before jumping down Square's throat?
"LINEAR GAMEPLAY...BOO HOO"—Man, I'd like to see half the trollcracks on here come up with THE "Brilliant" plot, world, and character design for a game*.
Don't like it, don't play it. They don't need your shitty cash to make them feel any better. FFI-FFIX had it's time and now they must cater to a ever changing audience in our time.
*Yeah, an unsuccessful execution of cliche elements comes to mind undoubtedly..
Shit stays shit regardless of the audience, fanboyfag. Nobody stops them to make an pretty looking mouthgaping-CG filled RPG WITH the gameplay of FFI-FFIX. I'm sure even today's audience would rather appreciate that rather than an ACTION-ADVENTURE game with a few rpg elements. But you won't listen to reason anyway, so go ahead and throw your money away for MOAR maintream shit, don't blame anyone for pointing out the obvious.
Want real RPG? Try games like Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate, Fallout or The Elder Scrolls.
jRPGs stopped in the time, they are the same since 80s.
You missed Neverwinters Nights and Arcanum. Also Elder Scrolls aren't that RPG really, since you basically have to save the world, and always in the exact same way; I guess you can define your character in side-quests, but since there's no incentive to most people don't and just do all of them... Oh well, the days of RPGs are slowly going, video-game and paper, and this makes me sad.
this article is classic fanboy whining. I notice almost all the critism is about something not being the way it is in the "real" FF-games. There being no levels doesnt make it a bad game. Just different from what youre used to. Same goes for almost everything you pointed out. Sorry, but you guys need to accept the fact that Square Enix isnt interested in making identical games forever. That they try to do something else (even if you think it goes towards simplifying. which they may be doing. but FF has always been a mainstream genre, so cant really complain about that either) isnt a bad thing in any way whatsoever. Its really subjective, actually. If you arent happy with the decisions Square Enix make, thats too bad. but you cant judge them for it, and you cant call the game bad for it either. but you shouldnt even be upset about it in the first place, so i dont really see the issue. Grow up, fanboys...
This what I summed up when I saw the criticism on another forum and I feel the need to 'write it'. Oh, I hope my opinion is justified when I play it, but until then...
I treat this as a dramatisation from a 2channer who's upset because it broke the RPG clichés and there's no loli in it.
If it anything when I watched that certain boss battle from a guy who broadcast it live on JustinTV, it's that 'endlessly attacking' gets you nowhere. It even applies to normal battle.
There is strategy, and quite a lot of it, especially with the Optima Change.
The Persona Syndrome. The leader dies, then you all die. I liked that <3
With a difference. It applies differently to each character. Some cost more for one character, another character can do it for a whole lot less.
Hey, it's better than Keyblades transforming into fucking motorbikes.
Optima Change, Improving Framerate, Changing the commands so that 'launch' is automatic, making sure when a enemy dies, your character doesn't hit thin air.
There's a fuck ton of changes in small aspects. What kind of changes did you expect? Serah in a bondage suit as a playable character?
If there anything that Fallout did right, it's that you can find strong weapons if you can find it. I never really understood why the next town over have a 'stronger list of weapons' than the last one.
Fucking hell, is this guy getting on about FFXIII or is he moaning that about an RPG FUCKING CLICHE not being in it?
How did Final Fantasy XII get full score? I'm not hating FFXII for the hell of it, but FFXII had some nice changes, but it brought out some hideous flaws with it that was resolved in the Zodiac System version. My moral: Never listen to Famitsu. EVER.
I read these 'criticism' over on another forum and suffice to say, it was the usual typical fanboy whining.
Oh, but I won't know until I play the game. But until then, I'll use my instinct and I've watched quite a lot of video. I can't comment on the story, but the gameplay is fucking easier.
If it anything when I watched that certain boss battle from a guy who broadcast it live on JustinTV, it's that 'endlessly attacking' gets you nowhere. It even applies to normal battle.
There is strategy, and quite a lot of it, especially with the Optima Change.
The Persona Syndrome. The leader dies, then you all die. I liked that <3
With a difference. It applies differently to each character. Some cost more for one character, another character can do it for a whole lot less.
Hey, it's better than Keyblades transforming into fucking motorbikes.
Optima Change, Improving Framerate, Changing the commands so that 'launch' is automatic, making sure when a enemy dies, your character doesn't hit thin air.
There's a fuck ton of changes in small aspects. What kind of changes did you expect? Serah in a bondage suit as a playable character?
However, this doesn’t matter as you hardly ever get any money [and you can never buy anything more powerful than what you already looted].
If there anything that Fallout did right, it's that you can find strong weapons if you can find it. I never really understood why the next town over have a 'stronger list of weapons' than the last one.
Fucking hell, is this guy getting on about FFXIII or is he moaning that about an RPG FUCKING CLICHE not being in it?
How did Final Fantasy XII get full score? I'm not hating FFXII for the hell of it, but FFXII had some nice changes, but it brought out some hideous flaws with it that was resolved in the Zodiac System version. My moral: Never listen to Famitsu. EVER.
...FFVII wasn't great. In fact, it's overrated. Final Fantasy VI is where it's at.
And Final Fantasy IX
A lot more people is quite an 'overstatement'. But these people are the same one who need to realise that it's 2009/2010. Not 1997. FFVII been released, everyone. Whilst it's nice to go back to the classics, we all need to realise that FF needs to change from time to time.
And also, 'these people who want a FFVII' remake are rabid fanboys/fangirls that really need a permanent ban from the internet.
That's beside the point; I never gave an opinion, one way or the other, regarding VII. A lot more people out there are clamoring for a FFVII remake than FFXIII. If you think XIII hate is bad, wait till square mishandles VII. If Square Enix can't produce a great remake, I'll be sure to avoid the internet for a month after its release.
They won't care, they only care about the name. Advent children, Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis Core, and Before Crisis all show this. None of them I would call good, okay, playable/watchable maybe, but not good, and yet the 7 fan boys lapped it up like milk. If it's called FFVII everyone will fool themselves into thinking it was good.
take at 9 and add 5 then we can agree with each other k
FFVI was the absolute *BEST* FF game period.
7 and 9 were acceptable.
Screw 8, and especially BIG Screw and FU to 10 & 12!
FF13
No open World Map?
No LVLs?
No Shops?
Full heal after each battle? **WTF!!**
This easily qualifies for AUTO-FAIL without
even needing to play this crap. Add on top
of that, the whiny reports of Snow's character,
and this game is just too much to take.
So, they finally released a game so bad it can actually kill the franchise? That's about time!!! I mean, F.F. games were out on the NES even before I got pubes, so for god's sake, it is just about time for this to finally stop.
Why not start from scrach and create something new? Yes, I know F.F games are supossed to be different from each other, but... really why not just let the "F.F." tittle go?
Sankaku Complex, the site to read if you can't be bothered going all the way to the GameFAQs forums.
Yes, somehow copying and pasting forum posts counts as news here.
yes of course Sankaku complex it's not the NYT
I just want good old FF back. they were masterpieces from I do X and since that fusion with enix their games are getting crapier and crapier.... SQARESOFT COME BACK PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO SMTH FOR FANS< NOT FOR MONEY!!!!!!!!!
They can't come back, they can't afford it, also FFX-2 was a great game.
Except that Enix has a grand total of about nine freaking games and hasn't influenced anything, negative aspects all come from Square.
Who cares?
Final Fantasy is an awful series, only kept alive by rabid Japanophiles who have no taste is real RPG's.
So i guess final fantasy 1 doesn't count seeing how they got inspiration from D&D which is a western thing?
If you don't like it.. dont play it. It's not made for you.
Knew it'd be all hype.
What are you faggots bitching about? You're all gonna buy the game anyway. I know I will be, and if it sucks, well it'll be worth $40 at Gamestop.
I dunno why this game keep reminding me of Xenosaga 2 but with different graphics.
Are Japanese video game companies finally done? I can't think of very many good Japanese games. The Americans are dominating.
Is that because you only know about Western Games?
I can think of a lot great Japanese games and series; Dragon Quest, Blazblue, Tales of, Disgaea, Valkyria Chronicles, Bayonetta, Monster Hunter, No More Heroes, etc.
all the 'good' western game don't only come from American companies either...
Oh, well.. read all these troll make my eyes hurt.
I 'ld lold when anyone who talk bad about this game, will buy this game when released in US/EU (whether to praise it or dang it, its same, they buy it anyway)
"Who cares?
Final Fantasy is an awful series, only kept alive by rabid Japanophiles who have no taste is real RPG's."
_____________
OOOOH I SUPPOSE YOU HAVE MORE TASTE THAN ANYONE ELSE?
LOL.
Uhh, no. All the RPGs you probably like nobody gives to shits about. Yeah, I'll go ahead and jump to ends since you want to make a generalization over people liking FF.
"GO AHEAD AND THROW YOUR MONEY AT THEM"— Ok faggot, I will. AFTER ALL, it's my fuckin money.
Since everyone feels like FF has changed, how about they just go become a Game Designer or Producer? Maybe you can be the next one to "bring" it back.
Discussing ended:
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9013668
"It's funny, but the part of the Final Fantasy XIII demo that had me most worried about is the part of the game I ultimately find I like best: The combat system. I couldn't help it -- it was so limited! -- even though I knew at the time I shouldn't have been too concerned. A weird quirk of the Final Fantasy series is that its intricate battle mechanics make the opening hours of the games -- the sections before you're given access to all your abilities and techniques -- terribly dull. Final Fantasy V is a slog until you get the first crystal and unlock jobs; FFVI does at least give every character a unique command right out of the gate, but it's still pretty repetitive until you meet up with the Espers; FFVIII is incredibly simplistic until you can junction; FFXII drags until you can build gambits.
Little surprise, then, that FFXIII is exactly the same way -- and the demo was based on the opening minutes of the game, well before you're granted access to the real battle system. But once you lean to use Paradigm Shifts (Optima Changes in the Japanese version), the real game begins... well, in battle, anyway.
Believe it or not, FFXIII's battle mechanics really are an evolution of all the battle systems from the series' PlayStation 2 chapters. Supposedly the team's real ambition was to create battles that felt as dramatic as the brawls in Advent Children, but fortunately they drew upon the series' heritage (i.e., videogames) to achieve that cinematic aim. Like I said in my preview, there's a lot of FFX-2 here: The pacing, the overlapping actions, the need for teamwork, the ability to change classes immediately in the thick of battle. But FFXIII also incorporates the need for strategy that I loved in FFX and a tactical element of indirect party control similar to FFXII.
It's interesting to see reactions to FFXIII by people who haven't yet played the game, because the response to things like our hands-on preview and impressions posted on various Internet forums is overwhelmingly negative. Yet the actual experience of FFXIII is pretty damn positive, even if the structure of the game is maddeningly linear. I'm really not too happy about the world design, which is basically one long corridor, but I'll be damned if the fights that take place in that tube of a universe aren't some of the best I've ever seen in any game with "Final Fantasy" in the title.
FFXIII does not reward complacency. It does not allow you to spam fight-fight-heal. Sure, the early battles don't require much thought, but once the game makes Paradigm Shifts available, all bets are off. You'll quickly begin meeting foes who can only be taken down with well-considered strategies, and not just the bosses; you'll have to adjust your tactics on the fly to account for the special defenses and abilities of plenty of cannon fodder mooks, too. Relying on the safe trio of Attacker/Blaster/Healer will only get you so far; sure, you probably won't have to worry about dying if someone in your party is set to work as a permanent healer, but some foes just can't be beaten unless you pour on the offense or the debuffs. And since the level of your efficiency in battle determines how quickly your valuable Tech Points are refilled, it's a pretty dumb idea to chip away at a high-defense foe for one percent of its max HP per round.
The first major boss you battle after gaining access to Paradigm Shifts initially seems like a pushover, despite spamming powerful group attacks: I wiped the floor with it in practically no time. But then the second phase of the battle begins, and the boss trades its high-pressure offensive skills for a more balanced defense. The only way to beat it with anything like efficiency is to force it into a Break state in which your party's damage output is multiplied several times. Of course, you always want to break enemies whenever possible, but it's trickier here; in the boss's initial state, its frequent attacks stun the party, giving its break gauge time to reset to zero. Once it enters the second phase of battle, though, it attacks less violently and less frequently, so it's possible to push it steadily toward the breaking point.
For the first sequence, it's essential to keep a Healer in the party to help recover from those constant attacks. Once you enter phase two, however, the boss's only major attack is a gravity bomb that hits the entire party for about half their hit points -- it's powerful, but it requires several rounds of recharge time before the boss can use it again. An ideal strategy here is to keep the party set to three Blasters -- offensive mages whose attacks have a high impact on the break gauge -- to build the boss's break gauge as high as possible while it's in its defensive phase. When it launches the gravity bomb, it's smart to switch to a Blaster/Blaster/Healer arrangement to allow your team to keep up the pressure while recovering from the big attack. And once the boss enters a Break state, it's wise to have main character Lightning switch her role to Attacker in order to make the most of its weakened defenses, while support character Sahz continues to attack as a Blaster and Vanille alternates between healing and blasting as needed.
Paradigm Shifts are basically a way to switch tactics between the various modes of action seen in every Final Fantasy. But there are a few unique wrinkles in FFXIII that allow the game to raise the stakes in a way that's decidedly rare in this series. For starters, there's no such thing as a Magic Point. Instead, every action a character takes requires a point of the Active Time Battle meter; a spell like Thunder costs one point, the same as a physical strike, while crowd-control techniques may cost two or three points. This equalizes the cost of magic and spells; there's no worry about recharging MP, and there's not even a need to worry about healing after the battle, since HP is recharged once the fight ends. And so, fights can be tricky. Effect spells that used to be cost too many MP to have any real value in Final Fantasy's throwaway battles -- be it Slow or Poison or whatever -- are no longer too expensive. Battles have therefore been balanced almost more like those from a Shin Megami Tensei game, where every fight could be the end for an unwary player unless they employ the proper tactics. Despite the more action-oriented feel of battle, it's not superficial. It's not mindless. It's not shallow. On the contrary, it's meaty and involving.
As someone who lives for good, challenging RPGs, this discovery pleases me.
I know a lot of people are freaking out about the fact that your support characters are AI-controlled, and that's actually kind of funny. This may be something new to Final Fantasy (disregarding the entire existence of FFXII, of course), but it's hardly a new idea for the genre. Ever played a BioWare game? How about Persona 3? Dragon Quest IV? Seriously, you guys gotta stop panicking about trivial things.
There's still more to battle that I haven't touched on, believe it or not. Tech abilities, for instance: They draw on a separate, unique meter (the TP meter, don't you know) and consist of highly specialized abilities -- mainly summoning Eidolons, but also casting certain Paradigm-independent spells like Libra. The higher your combat rating for each battle, the faster your TP meter recharges. There's also the Crystarium, which is basically FFX's Sphere Grid, except prettier.
But then, everything in FFXIII is prettier. Looks alone don't count for much... but fortunately, I'm finding the game does have a lot of substance where it really counts. Now that I've unlocked all the classes, I'm hoping combat becomes even trickier. This quest may or may not end up being a straight line to the very end, but at least the points along the way are becoming interesting."
What does this teach you kids? Dont listen to a message board with 'chan' in the name (be it 2chan or even worse, 4 chan! *shudder*)
damm you anon your text is to long ..
next time don't write a text longer then the article self ??
awwwww-------square enix failed boo-hooo
but i do see the failure ,,,,,it has no exp system i think and the summons it has a lot of crappy driving mode and to think that it has little skill list option and item usable interface i cant imagine it and to think they could just improve ff12 the best rpg ff series i played......hm really disappointed i was hoping that it was like ff12 large maps and really have a hard time finding summons and aquiring mountains of skill and weapons hmmppphhh sorry square enix but because of your idea to make a ff7 look alike game it trashed the core of the game
Sankaku Complex, where the lifeless, bitter, joyless souls dwell...
how about playing the game first, guys?
riding other people's opinions, just isn't a much fun as having your own!
Just to be fair, how many of you have actually played the game?
What really pisses me off is that this is not a bad game in any way, shape, or form. Its only getting a bad rep because it was way overhyped and because it has the FF name on it. If S-E would've made this exact same game without using the FF name it would be getting praised right now. Just cause its not like other FFs doesn't mean it is a bad game. People are so stupid nowadays it is unbelievable.
"This new Final Fantasy game will ruin the franchise FOREVER!!!!"
-Every Final Fantasy Fan since the first.
If you go deeper than that, then all video games were RUINED FOREVER before they were even created.
Here's the schtick I've been hearing about these complaints: The more you expect the game to be bad, the more likely you will think it is bad once you finally play it, overlooking any positive characteristics it has to offer as a whole. They are more than likely guilty of the Confirmation Bias and possibly by extension, on part of 2chan, the Bandwagon Effect. If you don't know what it means, look it up.
Quit bitchin and have some goddamn fun. Pricks.
It's Because they put it on X-Box
Oh my
The 90s called. They want their FMV games back.
2ch are a bunch of bad critics.
"Your party is completely healed after each battle."
That's just funny. That's the only thing I wish they didn't do.
"The summons’ transformation scenes are a joke [i.e. Odin turning into a horse]."
We knew this for how long and now they're bitching about it? I find them intresting.
"Shopping is only done at “online” shops on save points, with no proper shops to be found."
Didn't they do this with FFX in jp but omited it for the US and international releases?
"There are no levels."
It's called "Sphere-Grid" retards.
Also, 99% of them are FF7 fags and think FF7 > everything. I saw "FF13 hate" coming a mile away. I do think FF7 is a good game but come on people, Sephiroth was a retarded "mama's boy", Cloud was as emo as Squall from FF8 and the only good thing about Tifa was her boobs. Get a life, jackasses, and play some other RPGs.
I'm personally intrested in it myself. Of course that means I'd have to learn the new version of the Sphere Grid again as well.
The best RPG I ever play is Ultima 5, Firstly it is real time, secondly you can attack the town people, thirdy you can type your own speech instead of choosing from option. Any computer game that comes after Ultima 6 are all linear.
However I think we shouldn't compare Final Fantasy to Ultima, both game got is own beauty.
Overall I dont think SE will suffer,
but I think Xbox360 will be the loser.
FF is cater for the Japanese.
The Japanese loves linear game.
Sony got the exclusive right for the Japanese Version.
As for Xbox, we all knows that most Xbox user doesn't appreciate the beauty of linear game.
I wonder how well the Xbox 360 FF13 sales be.
japan 0% sales, as it's only on the PS3 in japan.
So FF XIII sucks. Told y.. actually NO, scrap that.
Ever since the second trailer (it got obvious once the demo war released) most fans knew deep inside that it would suck.
A lot of games suck nowadays and they still get high marks, because... well because they suck LESS than other games.
FF obviously can't be compared to the classics (I-VI) or the PSX (VII-IX) ones because:
1) Sakaguchi is NO LONGER A PART OF SQUARE-ENIX.
2) Times have changed, most high profile companies MUST try their best to design idiot-proof (even if the result is often the contrary) games - it is a demand by the stakeholders.
In conclusion, the story of FF XIII is the story of the love triangle between a shareholder his BOTTOM LINE and his PROFIT MARGIN.
Now go play hideandgofuckurself IRL. :D
AS IF ANY OF YOU FUCKTARDED WHITE WEABOOS KNOW SHIT ABOUT ANYTHING. This whole website is a heap of moronic bullshit.
It would be nice if someone told some good points in the game, so you could compare them with the bad ones. Then you wouldn't get the image that the game is shitty with nothing good in it. :S
How about waiting for it to come out yet FIRST, BEFORE claiming it's a bad game.
the Japanese version is already availably we seen enough game-play video thats why 1% of the complains was right here ???
So its FF10 only with a new setting and characters? god so that joke of FF12 is the best of the newer FFs(but not better than 9) still? ....uhg
how about finishing the game first yourself before passing comments. Just because an RPG made in Japan does not have any leveling up does not quantify itself as a bad game.
instead of worshiping the opinions of 2ch elevens, why not wait to form an opinion once you actually play the game. fucking weeaboos.
You think that we haven't shipped it over and played it ourselves? I agree with everything on that list except the battles, which are fairly interesting and tactical, but it isn't a great game, and it is probably the worst final fantasy game, so you can understand us being hurt when it was hyped to be the best thing ever.
sheeze japan is waking up...
that took a good 10 years...
I will now address every single fact:
>The whole game is completely linear until halfway through [approximately 20 hours].
Good. I want it to be consistent. Besides, this implies the game is at least 40 hours long.
>There are hardly any towns.
Great, so I get to do an adventure instead of talking to retarded NPCs.
>The party is always fixed. The whole game just repeats the movie-battle sequence over and over [In fact the progression is closer to movie-run-battle-run-movie-boss-movie-run-battle…].
So it's a JRPG.
>There are rather a lot of movies.
So it's a big JRPG.
>Moving around is like a long marathon.
So it's a really big JRPG.
>The whole game system is just a clone of FF10.
How? In that it's turn based?
>You can’t flee battles [You can’t avoid most battles either as there is no sneaking past enemies, including weak ones].
Good thing I'm not a pussy.
>Your party is completely healed after each battle.
Oh no, otherwise I'd have to use one of my 300 potions, or use some of my unlimited mana to heal my party, right?
>If the main character in your party dies it is game over [There are only ever 3 characters in battle, often less, and often fixed].
Oh, so I can't use Phoenix Downs? Good, maybe this will make people think before they move into the really difficult parts of the game.
>The best tactic is almost always endlessly attacking. There is next to no strategy or skill involved.
So it's a JRPG.
>The summons’ transformation scenes are a joke [i.e. Odin turning into a horse].
Odin is the Norse God most closely related with horses. This actually makes sense.
>The story is rubbish… [Spoilers omitted, but complaints centre on Snow’s constant and cringe inducing insistence that he is a hero and will “protect” whatever it is the antagonists are menacing this time]
So it's a JRPG
>Shopping is only done at “online” shops on save points, with no proper shops to be found.
Ok, so instead of looking for a shop, and then looking for save points in retarded spots, I can just find a save point and buy my stuff from there? Sounds great.
>However, this doesn’t matter as you hardly ever get any money [and you can never buy anything more powerful than what you already looted].
Ah, so the game is based around looting instead of shopping. This has been done before, and makes sense; loot armor and equipment, only buy disposables (potions and what not).
>There have been next to no changes from the demo.
So the demo represented the final product? Good. Remember how Brutal Legend's demo led everyone to believe that it was a brawler and not a poorly done RTS?
>The status screen displays no real information.
This is pretty vague; however, I never used the status screen in JRPGs. Just equip the most powerful weapons, make sure my team has full health, and move on.
>There are only 8 items usable in combat [For that matter, there are hardly any weapons or accessories, and the “crafting” system mostly consists of spending drops to upgrade their 2 stats].
Quantity does not equal quality. Wait, are you saying that there are only 8 different types of items, and not just 8 items? Because, if it's the former, then that's enough.
>There are no levels.
So I can't grind for 6 hours, and instead must actually play the game? The horror!
All of you need to grow up.
What does growing up have to do with it? Not liking linearity is now a necessity to "grow up"? Oooor could it be just a preference by some people and being dissapointed that Square just didn't say they were basically making a movie with some interactive elements?
You need to grow up.
LOL @ at all the apologists. Oh noes! Somebody just criticized your messia-Final Fantasy! Quick, we gotta come up with some bullshit responses so we can justify spending our money on a mediocre game!
Guess I'll be getting Star Ocean International and White Knight Chronicles Instead...
but is the game fun? thats something they didn't even touch on. so what if its NOT LIKE ALL THE OTHER GAMES. thats fucking problem with jrpgs, they're all the same. it good that they've westernized final fantasy.
Japanese gamers suffer terribly when faced with too many options: choice paralysis and the fear of doing something wrong or missing something makes them miserable.
You want to know why you're running down a miles-long hallway with no shops, towns, sideplots or hidden bonus items that you get one shot at before they're gone? It's because Square-Enix asked a bunch of people whose entire cultural upbringing has made them neurotic and risk-averse what they'd like to see in a game.
Congratulations, Japanophiles. Wallow in it.
Wait, were people expecting 13 to be good? Square Enix has, as already mentioned, failed miserably for 7 years to make a game worth a damn. Idk why anyone expected squeenix to make a non-linear, good RPG. Sorry but every FF game since Enix took over including FFTA2 and all the new chronicles and everything are awful. Final Fantasy shouldn't have made it past ten games anyway.
I feel too sick to say very much more but....you're clinically psychotic if you thought the golden age of Square wasn't over. Square committed suicide long before Enix bought them. It's a miracle that they managed to actually make one last amazing game (Final Fantasy X) after how complaisant they become with the extremely over rated titles 7, 8, and 9. The Final Fantasy franchise was seriously pushing it even before 7, but they managed to squeeze out a few more good games afterwards. It's pretty simple: You can't make the same game ad infinitum with the exact same naming schemas, exact same enemies, exact same spells, and practically identical stories and environments. If you didn't notice it, Squeenix actually made a WW2 game. If a company that makes RPGs exclusively suddenly makes a WW2 game, you know they threw in the towel. They threw in the towel when they made ff11, horrible game, and ffx2 was even worse.
It's kind of amazing how much games have changed over since the NES days. Even up to the PS2 days, these kind of games would be acceptable, if not expected. But now, given the innovation that many developers are into, as they slowly change the expectations of what a game is and what it should do, it's just not acceptable anymore to make the same thing over and over. Synthesized midis get replaced with orchestral scores. A few lines of dialogue get replaced with novel-length epics with multiple routes, and gameplay itself becomes more focused on playing however the player wants to, rather than how the designer forces you to. With that level of pressure, I'm sure it hard to make innovation on a series so long running as Final Fantasy...but for it not to be the final one...they're really going to have to start pushing the envelope.
X&V,
K.D.S.
Lots of people said something, then said something else as if they hadn't just said the first... First off, people have their own taste. Correct? Everyone has their own mind and will think differently about things. Some may think the same about things. I'm going to be honest I didn't even read half these comments. Anyways, just because someone doesn't like what you like doesn't mean they have "good" or "bad" taste. People like to make things simple by seeing black and white, but the sad news is, there is no black and white. Only gray and the line you draw. Just because you decide something is good or bad doesn't make it a fact, it's just what you personally think. Most things come down to a matter of personal opinion. And there are no right or wrong opinions. It isn't a good or bad game no matter what. It's just a game.
Sounds like Last Remnant got recycled as well as FFX. Healded after every battle, no levels, but skill and item level ups given (seemingly at random)is what made Last Remnant tick: Squarenix must have thought these were good things.
I'm going to wait for the US release of Ff13 but I realy hope it doesn't suck.
Omfg... you never stop complaining about this game. If you hate the game so much stop posting about it. But if your a true die hard final fantasy fan you would love the game for what they made it as. Truthfully a game may have some glitches or has some scenes you have to control the character in halfway. I'm considering this game not that bad because I know my final fantasy and I'm a person who has been one of the demo players. It's not bad for at least 5 minutes of the game. You start out with fantastic stats to get you going throughout the game correctly... stop bitching about it.
that makes me sad to my ectgromatic being
As soon as that guy said WoW this whole thread went to shit
Don't get me wrong. I play. But people make such a big deal over it. x.x
Everyone has their opinions, but in the end, it really doesn't matter wether or not you do Hard Modes.
Does accomplishing those things mean you're better than someone else? No.
keep in mind that they have only played the demo so of course all you have to do is attack coz its at the start of the game and people who got the japanese version said it was good.
wow these words are so true i dont have to right anything now :D
I hope it will entertain me, even if i would be a bit disappointed
if the whole critic is true :S
wow, sounds like a biiiiiiiggg disappointment, i'm glad mass effect 2 is here. seriously though, jrpg's could learn a few lessons from developers like bioware and bethesda.
LOL Sankaku how many articles do you need to say the same thing? 'FF13 sucks' - ok ok we get it!!!!
Yeah story is all great and everything, but don't you rent a videogame to play it also?
Where's the challenge to just playing a story?
Where's the fun in earning a cutscene?
Where's the fun in having the game do everything for you?
Those people that say its all about the story are the same losers that play videogames on supereasy.
I can get better story from playing a crappy mmo off of facebook than this game FFXIII.
Has anyone played Bayonetta, OMG thats a fun game.
A few things to note:
1. Where in the *#&%(# is my airship?!? I have been playing Final Fantasy since the original game and have always looked forward to flying around the game world in my little pixalated airship.
2. So linear ugh... I might as well have been playing Final Fantasy: God of War edition... Hello? Squenix? Umm... I would like my RPG back now please... I mean if I wanted to play a game like that I would have purchased a game like that...
3. When was it made law that all games had to be ultra-realistic? Bring back the superdeformed characters if you have to. Just make the graphics look nice and make a FUN GAME like you used to... I mean come on people look at New super Mario Bros. It's FUN because it knows what it is and does it well... I think squenix has lost itself somewhere along the line...
there are a few points in this criticism that are either incorrect or not a bad thing
The party is always fixed- uhhh bs, in chapter 10 you get to select your party (ff7, which a lot of people consider the best, also had a fixed party till later in the game)
There are rather a lot of movies- NEVER a negative for a game, look at xenosaga the game was awesome BECAUSE it had a lot of cutscenes
The whole game system is just a clone of FF10- the only thing even close to FF10 is the chrystallium thing and even that seems loosely based off of the sphere grid
You can’t flee battles- its called reset you dumb ass
Your party is completely healed after each battle- someone please tell me why this is a criticism, please?
If the main character in your party dies it is game over- lots of other rpgs have this might not be a good thing but still
The best tactic is almost always endlessly attacking. There is next to no strategy or skill involved- endlessly attacking(especially at bosses) seems to be a one way ticket to death.
Shopping is only done at “online” shops on save points, with no proper shops to be found- makes sense story wise otherwise you wouldn't be able to shop at all if they didn't have this
There are some things that seem to me to be valid points like not enough gil and the status screen not showing enough info, what does each icon mean, is it slow or deprotect?
I'd rather check actual videogame sites for reviews rather than sites like this one.
what???
no Level up...
the legend turn into shit...
i really dont like this game. i'm half through and i don't wanna play it again -.- it's so boring