200°

That “Chore” Feeling… When Fun Factors are Questionable

DualShockers writes, "Greetings, I’ve invited you all here today to talk about what I consider a very important element of a good game. That would be the desire to play it. Yes, obviously there should always be a want to play a game but perhaps my explanation would benefit from an example of my experience with that “Chore” feeling."

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booni35042d ago

It like...playing a game for Gamerscore or trophies, isnt it?

Imperator5042d ago

Yep, the only reason to play is to justify the money spent on it. SE really dropped the ball on this one.

D4RkNIKON5042d ago

FF13 definitely felt like a chore to play. Then I traded it in and never looked back.

Toenado5042d ago (Edited 5042d ago )

I said the same thing a couple months ago. only keeping it to complete the collection.

http://n4g.com/news/503922/...

Hitman07695042d ago

@atwon

You said the same thing in a review.. yet gave it a 9.2 , I'm confused.

Heisenberg5042d ago (Edited 5042d ago )

at one point or another had that moment where they realized: This is it... There's no more surprises. Sterile, uniform, linear environments followed by cutscenes. I never felt very involved in the game, it was impossible to connect, there was never any reason to think, just run from point A to B. Even the stores were uncreative, just a generic arbitrary ball representing a store, god forbid you actually get the opportunity to interact with another character.

The stories, the charming towns and townspeople, the stories behind the towns respective histories, the adventures, the deviating subplots etc etc etc it's all gone, they stripped FFXIII down to the bare bones of a game. It becomes a system: A to B then Cutscene, A to B then Cutscene and so on... A FF game should pay close attention to details, it should be an epic experience, that's why it's a famous series. What a misstep.

Toenado5042d ago

Busted??? Thats not my review. Just my comment to the review.

Boody-Bandit5042d ago (Edited 5042d ago )

ooops, my bad.

Hitman0769 that's the last time I am taking your word for anything! ;) *walks away with egg on face*

Now isn't this^ more fun than arguing over sales, reviews and who can piss further or more accurate? LOL!

abang5042d ago

@Heisenberg

That's exactly how i felt playing ff13. I love it, but it ended up being an action rpg, losing most of its FF charm. Here hoping that FFv13 would get me back, though I have doubts..I dont want to, i just have

ChozenWoan5042d ago (Edited 5042d ago )

... FF13 was
... um... a um...
... I know I've played that type of game before...
... ohh that's right!

It's a 1 button quick-time event game.

Edit:
I only played about 10-12 hours into the game before I gave up. Some say I should have kept playing till it got to the good part. Well if I'm already 12 hours in and the game is boring the snot out of me, something is seriously wrong.

GoW 1-3 is only about 10-15 hours long each, yet each moment is epic. Assassins Creed, MW (single player), Prince of Persia are all about the same length of time that I put into FF13, and all are great games.

Basically, I should not have to chore through 1-3 games worth of game time just to get to the good part of 1 game. That and that awful music just killed the game for me. I cringe every time I hear that mess.

Laters... got me feeling ill just thinking about Vanille's voice.

Heisenberg5042d ago (Edited 5042d ago )

From what little I've seen it looks really cool, but as we know with SE just because a screenshot or a scan looks beautiful, doesn't mean the game will deliver.

My main hope is that they jam pack Versus with stuff to do, creative interactive things, in a grand world that actually feels alive. Give me a rich world to explore, a great story and characters I can connect with and I'm happy, not over the top, flamboyant nancy boy nit wits that can't stop calling themselves heroes and pumping their fists and a hallway to the next cutscene.

SE has the resources to make the epic RPG we haven't had in years, classic elements mixed with new, lets hope they come through this time.

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Reibooi5042d ago

Personally I never felt as if Final Fantasy XIII was a chore.

The first few hours of the game the dynamic fast paced combat alone kept me from getting that feeling and then just when it started to get old and chore like new things were introduced that you needed to master(new paradigms and tactics and whatnot) and that pattern continues until you reach Gran Pulse at which point the game opens up so much it can't possibly feel like a chore.

It's hard for the game to feel like a chore when the game forces you to know how to play. There are plenty of bosses in the game that will destroy you if you don't do what the game is trying to teach you at that time(for example learning buffing and debuffing in one of the bosses with Sazh and Vanille that fight seems impossible until you buff and debuff and then it's cake and that keeps the game interesting and not feeling like a chore.)

I realize I am one of the few people who think that way and am probably the only one on N4G who doesn't do nothing but Bash XIII but regardless I never felt like it was a chore.

Redempteur5042d ago

you're not alone ..FF13 wasn't a chore but grinding in order to get money felt like a real chore ( post-end game ) but hey that's grinding ... ( it would have been better with some trick to pass time -- kinda gold saucer
-- or that card game
--( even ff6 had some moments when they broke the seriousness of the story )

anyway .. we all remember these moments when you put the console ON not to follow the story but to enjoy the things "on the sides" ..ff13 has nothing like that and that's a real regret .

Still FF13 is a REALLY GOOD GAME it just lacked what made some FF legendary , variety aside from the rpg itself

more huge areas like the big grand pulse ZONE would have given this game the sense of scope it needed

Hitman07695042d ago

I believe the gaming community got pretty well divided on this game in regard to this issue. Many people feel on either side of the fence and that's fine everyone is allowed to have their own opinions. It just seems to create a parallel reality to the idea that the game is good/bad at the same time to different people for different reasons.

huzzaahh5042d ago

I completely agree. The game stayed fresh until the end for me. In fact, I've put in a good number of post-endgame hours doing the missions.

I really wish that there had been a lot more mini games and side quests to do. I also wish that you had to search for ultimate weapons/armour.

Over all, though, I enjoyed the game a lot.

Redempteur5042d ago

That too looking for legendary weapons is way better than getting them through shops & upgrades ..

That treasure hunt feeling , you know

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Pozzle5042d ago

Square Enix need to go back and play the earlier FF games to realize what made them so loveable. I can still play through FFVI or FFVII and enjoy it - and it isn't just nostalgia talking - It's the likeable characters, the story twists, the varied enemies with varied strategies for beating them, the compelling villains, being INVOLVED with the world and the people in it.

FFXIII didn't seem to have much of this. You're suddenly shoved into the action without any reason to care about these characters or their quest. The world was sterile and uninteresting. There were no towns, no shops, not even some lone refugees to chat with along the way. Most battles could be won by pressing one button, and all the attacks looked the same (what happened to epic battle animations?) Hell, Square even managed to make a theme park boring!
It was such a chore to play. I literally felt like the only reason to complete the game was to be able to say that I'd beaten it and get a few trophies along the way.

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Taran5042d ago

I completely agree if a game feels like a chore its not even worth playing anymore. This game had some painful grinding too especially if you wanted your tier 3 weapons.

Hitman07695042d ago

I can relate to this for the game itself as well as other games in my collection. There should be a genuine desire to play not just the regret of blowing 60$ on games. Even worse is when I got a game for less and feel the same way!

JoelT5042d ago

But I hate rpg titles that make you grind it out in order to get to a certain level to keep the games narrative moving.

Here come the disagrees :(

Xymes5042d ago

I don't think anyone will disagree with you on that.

nickjkl5042d ago

i played worst i used to grind for .02 percent at halfway the half way point in one game

Fanb0y5042d ago (Edited 5042d ago )

Such old-school designs have to be ditched in favor of more streamlined experiences.

Crusade5042d ago

That's the funny thing about demon's souls. You can actually beat the game without leveling up at all. It's just incredibly stupid to do so. :)

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5042d ago
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70°

The 7 Best Final Fantasy Characters: Unveiling the Legends

While FFVII ranks highly, there's more to the series than one game. Here's Chit Hot's picks for the seven best Final Fantasy characters.

220°

The older it gets, the more I respect Final Fantasy XIII

Alex Donaldson: "Hindsight is a hell of a thing, however, and in the years since Final Fantasy XIII, my respect for the decisions its developers made has skyrocketed. In the two Final Fantasy titles since we see both the brilliance and the folly in alternative approaches - and in Final Fantasy VII Remake, we get a more nuanced understanding of what FF13 was trying to accomplish from many of the same development leads."

Einhander1972119d ago

FFXIII is actually one of the best Final Fantasy games.

I also sort of was disappointed at the time, never as much as the bandwagon. But really all the fantastic 3D rendered cutscenes and I actually liked the characters and the story though convoluted was actually fantastic and the ending was extremely emotional. So much budget and time were put into that game Square had such big plans, I actually have always felt kind of bad for how things played out.

I have been thinking for years how great it would be to get all three games on one disk for PS4 or 5.

Nyxus119d ago

I always liked this game, and I agree, a rerelease for current gen would be nice.

Shane Kim117d ago (Edited 117d ago )

Gotta take off the nostalgia glasses. It's the worst FF. Shiva as a bike, I mean come on.

Elda117d ago

Shiva as a bike is strange but saying FFXIII is the worst FF is not at all a fact, that's simply your opinion.

Terry_B117d ago

*One of the 3 equally bad FF's

DivineHand125117d ago (Edited 117d ago )

When I got my series X a year ago, I bought FF13 for nostalgia reasons but ended up being disappointed. When I first played it around the time it launched, I didn't have a lot of experience with final fantasy games, so I enjoyed it. Fast forward to when I played it again, I found that the game had many unnecessary filler moments instead of just giving us meaningful content.

The game is also very linear and a quote on the article said it best. "It is like a sewage pipe that leads to the ocean until it opens up on Grand Pulse."

The story didn't make much sense either and I believe it is my mistake as I played the FF7 remake on PS5 prior which is a night and day difference in terms of pacing, storytelling and likeable characters even though cloud is aloof.

FinalFantasyFanatic117d ago (Edited 117d ago )

Probably was a mistake to play any of the golden era FFs first (e.g. FF6 through FF10), it makes it harder to enjoy some of the FFs that aren't as good. I think FF12 was where major issues with the series started becoming apparent, and it just got worse from there.

FinalFantasyFanatic117d ago (Edited 117d ago )

I didn't really care for it that much, the only saving grace was that it had a better story than 15 (overall it was better than 15) and possibly 12, and even then, you had to read some of it through primers, like reading a book. Plus the battle system was reasonably fun for what it was, even if it was more the spectacle that was exciting for me (e.g. summoning). And to be fair, the 13 trilogy got better with every games, I still don't like Snow though.

Gamingsince1981117d ago

Ff13 is only good if you haven't played a ff before, or any other games that are decent for that matter.

-Foxtrot117d ago

It is in fact no way the best Final Fantasy game, it's one of the worst

Linear corridors, Cutscene, Fight, Cutscene...rinse and repeat

Dialogue and characters are pretty bad, especially Lightning as the main FF hero, they literally said they tried to make a "Female Cloud" and they failed.

Story was pretty awful

I could go on

I think the only alright thing that came from the game was the music.

Elda116d ago

That's not a fact that's your personal opinion. The game sold 11 million copies between its 2009 release up until 2014 including critically reviewed as an 8 out of 10 or an 80 out of 100. The game does have some issues but it's not at all a fact as one of the worst FF games.

-Foxtrot116d ago

Elda

Not just mine mate

A large majority

So….

Traecy116d ago

N4G commenters such as yourself aren't the majority. The game was well received.

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gold_drake119d ago (Edited 119d ago )

i liked the game alot but i didnt like how they handled the terminology.

i dont mind reading data logs but it had soo many.

but i always loved the music and how it looked. the battle system wasnt too bad either.

but i like 13-2 more :)

i still dont understand why we never got a remaster of the trilogy

Eonjay117d ago

Xbox kinda did. Besides the video files of course which are still best on PS3 due to bluray.

Snookies12119d ago

XIII is a pretty solid game, but XIII-2 is WAY better. XIII-2 was one of the few games I decided to go for a Platinum trophy in, early on. Had so much fun the entire way through getting it too!

Eonjay117d ago

Totally agree. FF 13 was okay but 13-2 is my favorite FF game ever.

shinoff2183119d ago (Edited 119d ago )

I hated this to when it released. I haven't much liked a ff game since ff10 as much , aside from ff7remake. I decided to give it another shot on my series x since it's not on a current ps and was liking it quite a bit(just takes me some time to get over things ) until star ocean 2 remake came out I was all over that.

Square should definitely remaster it or something for ps4 ps5

KillerB117d ago

my favorite jrpg trilogy ever

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70°

Interview: Making music with Masashi Hamauzu

Square Enix Blog: "How do you compose iconic songs that help define a legacy? We speak to legendary composer Masashi Hamauzu about his work on Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XIII, and Final Fantasy VII Remake, and how to make unforgettable music."

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