More details on Final Fantasy XIII-2, Square Enix’s sequel to the controversial Final Fantasy XIII, have emerged by way of a short trailer – which some have interpreted as having the towns and perhaps even non-linear segments so absent from the original.
The trailer:
The absence of towns (omitted for being “too much work“), shops, levels, choices, intelligent gameplay and other traditional RPG elements were a major if controversial source of criticism for the original, although this did not stop it selling millions of copies anyway.
ZZZzzz another pretty graphic generic turd by Square Enix in run-down FF franchise.
Is Lightning seriously not going to be the main character?
Final Fantasy XIII is not terrible, just lacking in scope and (oh the irony) “focus”. There’s much to commend; it looks beautiful, the character designs are stronger than FFXII, and the music is brilliant. They made a genius decision in making Fang female.
However, they undid all the things they got right with a load of poor decisions.
Characters: Lightning is great, as is Fang (awesomely sexy and badass). Szazh is cool, and Snow is broadly pretty good as a character. Vanille and Hope are the weak links in the party; they are very much character archetypes; absurdly cute moe and whiney emo boy.
Scope: In RPGs, its always been the case that visual splendour often has to be sacrificed in order to give the game a true sense of adventure, of taking place in am explorable world. In RPGs, Quantity is in fact more important than Quality; I’d prefer 15 boxy towns to 1 exquisitely rendered one. Part of the joy of playing an RPG is to explore the world, to go where you want.
The story feels too closed, too small. The story is supposed to affect the two worlds yet because we don’t ever really see the people of these worlds or connect with them.
Linearity: First Person Shooters are lazily linear (ffs Metroid Prime showed how to make an FPS non-linear yet we still get the same Chapter-based BS), and it seems that Square have taken this to mean RPGs should be, too. Obviously, you don’t wnat an RPG to be so nebulous and non-linear as to bore people, but you also wnat to make it a game that is worth exploring.
Legacy: Personally, I feel Final Fantasy VII may have poisoned the series; Square always seem to be trying to make “the next FFVII”, rather than just make a great FF game. IMHO FF6, 8, and 9 are arguably better than the great but absurdly overrated VII.
Apparently FFXIII went through a confused dev process, and it shows. Its not a bad game, but it is a game that could have been great if the developers weren’t so unsure of themselves.
Square still have creativity, they can get their mojo back. They made the wonderful The World Ends with You, don’t forget, and whereas Sega won’t make a new Phantasy Star (a proper one, not some online crap), Square are at least still making Final Fantasy games.
Heck, Square should poach Reiko Kodama from the clowns at Sega and put her in charge of FFXV.
This looks fucking amazing, what else needs to be said? Top of my list for next year (hopefully thats the release zone)
hope you don’t get disappointed.
Come on, if you name a 8bit game “Final Fantasy” and sell it ps3 only it will still sell millions of copies, that doesn’t mean it’s good.