I used to hate FFXIII...now I miss it?!

Games that grow on you.

Final Fantasy 13 wasn't the game I was expecting. But after putting it away for months, I find myself actually missing it! Surely a game that sticks with you is a worthwhile piece of art.

[Godmars290]

"Surely a game that sticks with you is a worthwhile piece of art."

No. No its not. It was a compromised framework because Square couldn't manage and overestimated what they wanted to do with the early HD title.

And yes. Only read this far into the "article". The game was broken and isn't worth the thought and consideration it has been given.

And god help me, I'm probably going to give it a bit more because of crap filler articles like this.

[Kurisu]

How was FFXIII "broken"?

[Godmars290]

1 - Nothing the party does resolves the story. They do exactly what the bad guy wants and things just happen to fix themselves.

2 - The world is poorly - actually, can't even say things were established at all in game. Not towns. No order to locations/dungeons. Anything related to setting was largely in data logs.

3 - Past Hope's mother, NPC's have no value. And even then since she lacked common sense and failed to stay with her son. Aside from that, Snow's gang, Lightning superior and especially the commanders hunting down the party do nothing. Especially Ms. Boob-Glasses, excluding her color coding fit.

The game wasn't a game: it was a collection of purposeless cutscenes with busy work in between.

[Stringerbell]

@Godmars290

That you Spoony?

[DragonKnight]

@Godmars290: Then Toriyama succeeded because he wanted an RPG with the progression of a shooter, and you just described 99% of shooters.

[RedDevils]

Is not broken, but is garbage regardless

[rainslacker]

I don't think it's broken. It's not a great FF game. It's not a bad game if you take the FF out of it though. It's pretty solid in terms of game play, but the story progression is somewhat bland for the JRPG genre in general. It's about on the level of the more mid-tier titles which don't try too hard. It actually wasn't a bad story, but poorly presented.

@God

#1: That's pretty typical of FF games or JRPG's in general. However it was rather jarring in FFXIII because overall, there was no real antagonist to fight against, just a general "evil" which was only "evil" because of it's effect on the characters. That is rather a 180 from previous titles where the antagonist is more a negative towards the entire world in a hugely threatening way. I actually felt the same thing about FFXII, as the characters had very little to do with what was going on, and even to this day, I'm not sure what the antagonist really was. The whole game I spent wondering when the real story would begin, and suddenly it just concluded.

2. Agree there. Too much was left to secondary research...which is more indicative of poor story telling and narrative than it is indicative of a broken game. The story itself was complete, but all the factors of that story were left outside the game itself.

3. Those hunting them down did have reason to do so, and I actually felt that was explained, or at least pretty obvious from the start. Otherwise, yeah, the NPC's were mostly non-existent, and that was rather sad given how in past games they usually added something to the story itself, or back-story, or something as simple as adding to the lore of the world. Hope's mother was more a contrivance to give Hope a reason to exist in the game. His father...well that was just stupid. The baddies you referenced though were pretty shallow, but the commander did do stuff. Again though, his role was very poorly explained.

FFXIII biggest fault is poor delivery of the story, not that it was a broken game.

[chadwarden]

cry me a river

[Godmars290]

@rainslacker:It was broken in that it had way too much style over substance. So much style in fact that it produced numbness. Contrivances like Vanille's weapon, including finding it, to her and Fang having been Ragnarok and not destroying Cocoon when they where.

If the game worked as a game it was only because what elements where there had been crafted and condensed to fit what little room was there. The Crystalis was especially a one lane skill tree done in a spiral with a branch here and there merely to suggest complexity. Item shops being save points where just insulting to any notion of immersion.

Also, excluding FF12, FF10-2 for that matter since that's when narrative structure was all but out the window, in every FF before the sense of the Hero's Journey was very notable. Yes side quests weren't really side quest, a spell or item was needed to progress and get back on the main story, but they had weight. Magic was a necessity not an accessory and before Wakka's Death Ball what weapons you had actually meant something.

[DragonKnight]

10-2 was another Toriyama gem. Notice the pattern.

[Adrian_v01]

Seriously? FF VII's ending would have been the same if none of the journey ever happened. The world saved itself.

[Godmars290]

Sephiroth manipulated Shinra, Cloud, in order to cast Meteor, only to mess up killing Aerith unaware that that was how she would stop him. Then Cloud broke free of Sephiroth's control, killing the last of his essence after destroying his primary form. Until Square Enix caught Sequelitis of course.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Agreed. That is not an game I want to think about again......ever.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

But it still thinks about you at night :3

[Kurisu]

Although I agree with some of your points it doesn't make it a broken game. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 is a broken game.

[gangsta_red]

Square tried something different with the direction of the story and gameplay for 13. It was a vision that I give them credit to sticking with throughout the trilogy.

I didn't hate 13 but I did think it was a convoluted mess story wise.

13-2 I liked better because of the open type nature and the changing times lines it implemented. I did not like the fact you couldn't recruit more characters to your party but instead monsters. That made no sense to me but it was still fun. Story still damn confusing.

13-3....a complete mess and I did not like at all the whole time limit design of the game and the fact you controlled one character. I tried to get through it but it was horrible in my opinion and had to send it back to Gamefly.

And sometimes things that stick with you isn't always art. Used toilet paper sticks also....I wouldn't call that art.

[Selectgamer]

I'm sure a pretentious museum somewhere already has some toilet paper and shit proudly on display.

Calling it art seems to have struck a nerve with many of the commenters here. It's a creative expression that caused an emotional reaction and experience.

Perhaps it's not art. But it's definitely a landmark and divisive moment in the history of one of gaming's classic series

[gangsta_red]

A landmark and divisive moment sure but not in a good way.

FF7 and other Final Fantasy games like FF3(U.S.) could be considered landmarks (even 10) because of how universal a lot fans say how great those games were in the series.

The 13 trilogy seems to have more people divided and I personally hear a lot more people saying how they hated the 13 series.

[rainslacker]

I agree with you....strange day on N4G huh?:)

12-2 was confusing, but I felt that once you actually understood what was going on, it was a very good story. It tried to hard to explain too much too early, and that was confusing. I feel the time lines thing was unneeded, but since it was there, I felt it was underutilized in how the past effects the future. When they started throwing in the future affects the past it was just confusing again. It's like they wanted to do a Chrono Trigger thing, but couldn't figure out what that game did right. Oddly enough though, Sereh became my favorite character in the series, and I was actually sad at the ending. The fact she was pointless in the third game except as a contrivance to add some level of emotional angst to Lightning.

13-3's story was horrid. Complete departure from the previous titles, and convoluted what was an amazing lore for the world itself. Dismissing half the lore, to make up new lore, which itself was nowhere near as deep. It was a fan service game, and the only redeeming quality it had was that the game play was solid and pretty fun for what it was....so you couldn't take the game as a more traditional JRPG, but more an Action RPG. I pushed through it, but the ending wasn't satisfying, because I personally couldn't bring myself to care because what I actually came to like about the first two(the lore) was put aside to focus on what was already made a shaky premise in 13-2. In addition, the story was more focused on Lightning alone, and the rest of the world was just depressing, and the prior games gave me no reason to care about the people Lightning was trying to save...much less the hundreds of new NPC's that now needed some odd and end to go in peace. Sadly, with all the potential, very few of the quests were really interesting, and even if they were, there were only a couple that didn't end in some depressing inner monologue about how dispondant the human race had become.

It's like each game wanted to completely shake off the previous games story to start fresh.

This could have been an amazing trilogy with the lore. I think FFVXIII could have shown people that the lore really was deep. Given the nature of the lore set up within 13-2, it could have even had direct correlations to the original games.

[Godmars290]

Square hobbled together what they could while being overly focused on appearances. That's why the other FF13s looked not as good as the first, but picked up better game mechanics and elements. Like towns and crowds of NPCs. Things Toriyama swore up and down where "passsay" in the first only to reintroduce them while pimping out his waifu.

[trywizardo]

i really like it , the story and graphics and gameplay is great
the only bad part it wasn't like really open world , and every fight you enter a room , or an area for fighting unlike 12 where you can fight real time without any special fighting area
the story is 13 was weird but good , 13-2 is not bad lightning returns story is great (super weird but after understanding it its impressive)

[Stringerbell]

I actually just started Lighting Returns, so far I'm liking it.

[trywizardo]

the world is great , the monsters looks awesome , the whole graphic is like a PS4/X1 game and the gameplay is weird , but good weird xD

[Cradle_of_Clay_Doll]

13-2 & LRFF13 are great games.

[DragonKnight]

You must be a masochist. That's the only way I can imagine anyone missing the pain this game throws at anyone who plays it.

[DualWielding]

Game sucks but Ligthning was kinda hot

[Sakkaku]

Yeah, I so missed the linear gameplay, the ungraspable story/lore, and surreal intangible "World" in which you played in.

I miss it as much as Final Fantasy the Spirits Within.

[Selectgamer]

I totally agree with all of those reasons, hence my surprise that I was still thinking about it. I haven't watched spirits within since it came out on VHS, but I remember thinking it was a solid 6.5. Alec Baldwin in Final Fantasy is still pretty cool

[goldwyncq]

Ungraspable? Not any more than your average Final Fantasy story.

[sephiroth420]

i dunno how you could miss a peice of crap like that, i miss playing FF12 and Tekken Tag 2, now those are memorable games. I think this guy should go play a much older FF than 13. then he'll forget all about that crap.

[Selectgamer]

I hated this game when I played it, thats why i was so surprised to keep thinking about it. The older ones I've played are 7, 6, 4, 9, and 10. I didn't like 10 and was really hoping 13 would get back to its roots, which it definitely did not!

I wrote the piece because I was as shocked as you that i missed it. Maybe its like missing a horrible ex-girlfriend, and only remembering the good parts.

[sephiroth420]

oh that is a good list you've got, have you not tried 8 or 12? i highly recommend both, 12 goes back to the roots as far as the world is concerned but the battle system is a little different and pretty fun compared to the others, i'd recommend emulating it on pcsx2 as you can put it at 1080p and AA and other graphical enhancements like sweetfx, i did it with grandia 3 and it made it quite an enjoyable experience.

yeah i agree i think it may be, then we see them again and you remember haha

[Shinox]

"I used to hate FFXIII...now I miss it?!"

it wasn't even an old game to begin with let alone memorable and you missed it already !?

Seek help .

[Lionalliance]

IT was bad, just leave it be as a memory of not doing this kind of stuff again.

[Donnywho]

I'm one of the few who liked 13. I don't think I'll ever replay it though. I liked the story of hopelessness but I think in the end the combat was the best thing the game had for it. Which was alright for me at the time. The girls in that game were great too, the guys should of stayed home.

[rainslacker]

I liked Sazh. He had a good story progression, and he was more believable than the other characters in his reasons for being there. Would have been better if I didn't have to watch Vanille in every part of his story progression though. She's the only female in the series I didn't like much. Didn't hate her though.

Combat was really good, but found it required you sought out the harder fights to really appreciate it.

[Donnywho]

Yea the fights after the last boss were the most fun for me too. Not sure if they had to be after the last boss, but we're on the same page.

[gamer7804]

hopefully it gets added to xbox BC, i finished the first two but not the third, would love to play that and capture screens video etc.

[chadwarden]

Bunch of video game "experts" here LMAO

[clouds5]

Final fantasy changed after IX. FF IX was the last FF from the original team. The other half went a different direction with FFX.
I enjoyed XIII. Especially with the optional stuff there was actually depth to the gameplay and strategy etc. The story was OK for me about the same as FFX but with a much cooler protagonist. Still have to finish XIII-2 thx for reminding me :D

[DiscoKid]

This game is like that kid in school that always does something stupid, gets beat up and ridiculed, and you feel sorry for him...

[DiaperFace]

I thought it was as bad as the series could get, but then the ACTION RPG FFXV came along, repurposing a spinoff as a main title and I just gave up on the series. FFXIII is a classic compared to XV already.

[Adrian_v01]

I didn't know it was possible to play XV yet :o How else could you compare a finished game to one you know nothing about?

[DiaperFace]

http://finalfantasy.wikia.c...

Turn-based trumps action any day for a main FF title anyway, kid.

[Adrian_v01]

But you make no logic, kid. There hasn't been an action main FF title yet, kid, how can you compare turn based titles with action titles if there were no action titles, kid? So much logic missing there, kid.

[TheMutator]

Bah , i still hate that piece of crap.

[DarkBlood]

Agreed its the same with resident evil 5 for me n so forth despite not being what I wish they would of been I wont discredit the good times especially in relation to the surrounding memories at the time of playing it

[Last_Boss]

Unfinished and soooo much turmoil with this game, but solid none the less. I like this trilogy very much, just wish the true vision was realized for it.

[punctualdork]

You can choose to not comment instead of saying this guy wrote a "crap filler article." I know this is the internet, but it is possible not to be a complete jackass to strangers.

[Gatsu]

I disliked FF13 first even though I'm a huge FF fan since 1998. So I put it aside and kind of forgot it sadly. But now when I'm finally playing it further I actually enjoy it. Imo it has been great so far, about 25h in :).

Looking forward to FFXV open world, it's the thing I maybe miss the most. I mean when older games had that World Map travelling.

[asadachi]

It sounds like someone who played it when they were young, played it a lot to incur lasting memories, but is just learning how nostalgia works. Doesn't mean it's a good game, just means you played it a lot and your brain is reminding you since you spent so much time playing it in the past, it must be important in some way. At least how it seems to me.

[Tzuno]

It's funny how many people comment the bad part of the game and to think of it 90% of them finished the entire game before judging it, if it was such a bad game why you played to the end? HA :)

[Chaosdreams]

K, if someone kicks you in between the legs really hard, you're bound to remember it down the road. Does that mean you want to experience it all over again?

NO, NO YOU DON'T.

[MilkMan]

No, I still hate it.

[josephayal]

this game is so bad