200°

Final Fantasy XIII Should Have Been The Breakfast Club of Final Fantasy Games

I didn’t like Final Fantasy XIII all that much.

I know the sentiment isn’t all that uncommon; not a lot of people liked that game. Well, that’s not true. A lot of people liked that game, but almost all of them live in Japan. And people in Japan do some weird things.

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LiamDirish4286d ago (Edited 4286d ago )

Let's just get one thing straight, it's not a bad game. It's linear structure is very similar to FFX, tunnelling you from one area to the next and then allowing you a lot more freedom in gran pulse (just like the calm lands). Sure some of the characters were irritating (Vanille & Hope) but the story was great, the music was good and the battle system was nice and quick (although leveling up was very restricted at times)

32froshes4286d ago

The story had more potential than a lot of people give it credit for. But that potential wasn't ever reached, in my opinion.

Godmars2904286d ago

The thing is, "failing to reach your potential," is the literal and exact thing as "failing" or being "Bad."

FFXIII was a bad game, a bad JRPG, because it failed to live up to its potential.

deep_fried_bum_cake4286d ago

"FFXIII was a bad game, a bad JRPG, because it failed to live up to its potential."

That's just stupid. Every game has potential which they fail to meet, that does not make them bad. And it does not make XIII bad.

You can call it a bad Final Fantasy game and I'll have no objection, but it was not a bad game.

Godmars2904286d ago

In your opinion it wasn't bad, just as in mine it was.

With the only added difference between us is that I think it was so bad, that Square have presented themselves and many other project so poorly, focused on the wrong things this gen - which sadly were probably the exact same things they focused on last - that I have no faith in them anymore.

JoySticksFTW4286d ago

All I know is, FF XIII was the very first FF that I had to force myself to finish.

When a game that's supposed to be fun becomes more like work, that's not a good sign.

And it's my own fault for forcing myself to finish instead of quitting.

But I've been a FF / Square fan for a long time now, and I really hoped the story would come around and grab me when all else failed (characters, pacing, etc). This didn't happen for me.

As someone mentioned above, it was only when you finally get to Gran Pulse with the ability to explore a little bit, that the game becomes marginally better.

TheLyonKing4285d ago

The fact that your had to read notes to understand the story though defeats the purpose of having a good narrative to the game.

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Summons754286d ago

This is how I have always felt.....thank you!

wishingW3L4286d ago

FF13 never gives you freedom like FFX where you could go back to certain places and do side-quest for ultimate weapons and aeons. FF13 is a straight line from beginning to end. What liberty there was in Pulse anyway? Pulse was just a plain map with monsters and stones scattered around, there was nothing else in it!

Bordel_19004286d ago

To be honest I don't care that much if a game is linear or not, as long as the game is awesome I'm happy.

FF XIII was plain boring and tedious.

Anderson84286d ago

my thoughts exactly.. xiii was so bad i didnt even bother finishing it and thats a first for any game ive played not jus in the ff series..

Ranma14286d ago (Edited 4286d ago )

You shouldnt say FF10 is similiar to FF13,

FF10 is 10 times better

kanetheking4286d ago

ff10 is x times better then ff13, get it x haha i am so funny, but i enjoyed 13 i never really got the hate hope got his mother bloody died in front of him, i did not like lighting and vanille tho they was bland as hell, and since ff13-2 is 10pound i am getting that and it's got catching type system in it and i like my catchings.

Nerdmaster4286d ago

Until this day I try to figure out how SE managed to take all the good things about FFX, twist them and make a terrible game.

FFX was linear, but there were plenty of places and cities where you could rest from battles a little. FFXIII was like a gigantic dungeon, you finished one of them, watched a cutscene and another dungeon started right after that. It was battles, after battles, after battles. The only place without battles, that circus thing place, didn't have anything to do but walk until the next set of battles.

In FFX we heard Tidus' thoughts and could understand more of the character. FFXIII tried to do this, but decided to let us hear the thought of Vanille, the worse, and most irritating character in any FF. (To be fair, Quina was a worse character, but not as irritating).

The Sphere Grid was a great way to change the level system, by letting us see the growth path of each character and have some control over it. The Crystarium was visually similar to the Sphere Grid, but they removed any customization and it wasn't any different than tradicional level system.

FFX battles were quicker than previous games, but you still could think and create strategies. FFXIII battles were too quick and too automatic, since you can't control the other members of your party.

FFX story made us understand the world little by little, through the eyes of someone who was new to it. FFXIII thought we already knew its world and we got lost in it. Oh, and the story was a mess.

TheLyonKing4285d ago

What are you talking about, Hope was far more annoying haha and Quina was an awesome character and a powerful Blu-Mage.

I agree with your other points though. The lack if cities was terrible. The first time any ff game as skipped on cities/towns!

Treian4286d ago

No. The story was linear like most FF games. FFX's dungeons had a lot of pathways. There was towns, sidequests, and mini games. That is what 13 lacked.

DragonKnight4286d ago

@LiamDirish: It isn't similar to FFX. With FFX you actually felt like you were in a living world, you didn't have linearity thrown in your face at every turn. You could enter houses for goodness sake. FF13 is a bad game. It is a terrible game.

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Godmars2904286d ago (Edited 4286d ago )

if they had known what they were doing, in several respects, we could have gotten a literal epic "chase" story which described an only interesting world. Sure it would have had on rails flying segments, a few weapons and characters to focus on, but at least it wouldn't have been to empty J-pop attempt we got.

Damnit,someone make a multidimensional travel device so I can go to the reality *THAT* game exists. It would be worth ripping a hole in all of space-time or unleashing elder horrors on this reality.

Da One4286d ago (Edited 4286d ago )

"A lot of people liked that game, but almost all of them live in Japan."

Couldn't be more wrong.... FFXIII's reception world wide was a surprise...I don't like bringing sales up into a argument, but the sales figures of FFXIII-2 were more surprising.

wishingW3L4286d ago (Edited 4286d ago )

FF13 sold 7 millions while FF13-2 sold less than 2 millions. What part of the sales are supposed to be surprising? Specially when FF series is the biggest JRPG franchise in the west [well, and Pokemon too] and it sold that bad.

True is that most people didn't like FF13 an they all skipped the sequel. There is no way to spin the meaning of such bad sales... And have in mind that FF series is a high budget franchise unlike Demon's Souls or Tales of Graces which can sell 2 millions and make a profit because they are low budget games.

4286d ago
DragonKnight4286d ago

"Most people loved 13."

...

"Unless you can prove to me over 5 million people..."

You think that because 6 million people bought FF13 that 5 million people loved it? You have the audacity to make a claim like that then demand someone prove to you the opposite of your claim? FF13 received more hate than any other FF game ever. WORLDWIDE! That is verifiable FACT you can look up with google.

solidjun54286d ago

"So stop speaking out of your ass"

MAybe you should practice what you preach tippytaco...i mean, shintowave123, i mean...whatever account you use that ultimately was banned because of spamming.

Da One4285d ago (Edited 4285d ago )

@ wishing

I'm confused are you seem to be agreeing with what my opinion

1.I was surprised about how bad FFXIII was received (as the author stated only people in Japan liked it, which is highly inaccurate, they seemed to have hated it too)

2.The sales of FFXIII-2 were very low compared to the original

I think i might have made my point confusing with my wording.

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4286d ago Replies(2)
kratos1234286d ago

Thank you for adding that , the writer doesn't now anything he is only assuming they liked it over there. That to my comes over as unprofessional journalism

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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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