Why I think Final Fantasy 13 Failed

Clayton Donaldson expands on a conversation once held with Xander Davis as to what steps can be taken to save the Final Fantasy Series

[Godmars290]

FF13 fails because they couldn't use the hardware involved properly.

[izumo_lee]

Also i read that the development of the game was in disarray. Each department did not agree in the direction the game was headed, and do you know is to blame for that.

Oh! the director Toriyama. It is his job to guide the team isn't it? It failed once he was named head of the main series.

[wishingW3L]

to this date I still don't understand how Square let that man direct the main FF series after FFX-2. The closest thing to a decent game that he has directed was Bahamut Lagoon and that game was a mess (only ultra niche nostalgia lovers dare to defend it).

I remember there was an interview with Sakaguchi about FF7 and he made fun of Toriyama because he always gave the weirdest ideas for the game and the team never agreed with him (he was against killing Aeris BTW). Sakaguchi gave some examples but I don't remember them now (edit: I remembered about one, the mistery panties! google it) and I tried to look for a link but couldn't find one but I think that after FFX-2 you should get my point. He just doesn't give a crap about consistency. lol

But what I fear the most is that if a FF7 remake ever happens you can be sure that Toriyama will be the one at the helm and he will ruin it.

[Irishguy95]

Toriyama was responible for the first 4-5 hours of FF7/

He's not a terrible develpor, he's actually quite good, but ONLY if he has someone else to guide him through his own ****ed up mind.

Toriyama was apparently going too far with the Cloud cross dressing scene and wanted the infamous childrens panties in. Where everyone else went "Woah woah, this is WAY too far, what are you on Toriyama there are limits you sick bastard"

Well..yeah. Toriyama never deserved the position of lead producer I don't know what madness led to that.

[Dwalls1171]

Well financially ff13 did not fail it sold over 6million units I think...

But what stopped it from maybe selling 9 or 10 million was how much square enix dumbed down the game.....microsoft was very popular at the time so square made the dumb decision to make this game multiplat....and due to the major technical limitations of 360, instead of putting their heart and soul, blood sweat and tears, throwing everything but the kitchen sink in it making it the huge deep experience we wanted....they dumbed it down and the product we got was ff13.....

[ThanatosDMC]

It sold on name alone. FF13-2 didnt sell as much... I wonder why.

Same concept with Diablo 3. Sold 10+ million on name alone, but I highly doubt an expansion will sell as much after the crap they pulled by releasing an unfinished game.

[Kalowest]

"I think Final Fantasy 13 Failed" because Motomu Toriyama was put in charge.

[user3915800]

Why it failed? Cause the game suck, I bought the first and finish it and to be honest, t was a linear game, with the lack of RPG worth been a jrpg. They tried to make it one way without branching off and to make matters worse, the playability nd level ups were awefull. It was like giving someone new and told them make an rpg of what you think it is, it lost the foundation from the first XI FF and what we have was pure garbage. Played the first. skip the second and now I will missed the third. Why? because they have zero vision, square suck now ever since the father of RPG was fired. Why ghe get fired? Because squaresoft wanted to make a movie and have hironobu do it, even when he told them the cost was too much and management did not care. This is what happens when management/executives and directors get inbolved, utter garbage comes out. Who gets fired? Employees of course its their fault. SquareEnix suck and squaresoft ruled.

[Pozzle]

Putting the blame on its lack of PS3 exclusivity isn't the way to go. Square made an average game. And it probably STILL would have been an average game even if it was a PS3 exclusive.

There's no reason a games developer can't make a great game on ANY hardware. The hardware has nothing to do with the lousy story, confusing dialogue, monotonous gameplay and bizarre design choices. That's Square's fault.

[Godmars290]

Really missing why most here agreeing with me, yet the disagrees.

[first1NFANTRY]

It failed because it tried to appeal to a lager/casual audience instead of focusing on it's strengths from past iterations. Also the dvd9 format didn't help at all.

I played through a few parts at a friends house and i'm glad i still haven't bought it. There are better rpg's out there which could use the attention

[Qrphe]

The choice of taking a break from the main storyline and screwing around everywhere in the world instead.
They went from making the most open-world FF game (XII) to the most linear one.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

***"They went from making the most open-world FF game (XII) to the most linear one."***

EXACTLY! FF13 failed because it was SUPER LINEAR. Huge step back from the open world of FF12 and not to mention the poor battle system.

[animegamingnerd]

who ever thought making a RPG linear was good idea should never work in this industry

[Nerdmaster]

FFX was very linear and it's one of the best RPGs ever made. Linearity isn't the reason why FFXIII sucks.

[Gamer39]

Simply, boring and very linear.
I want old FF games style next-gen, VI, VII, VIII, IX. But i think its only dream..

[HonestDragon]

Yeah, unfortunately, Final Fantasy XIII was a bust. If I had to name one game that I regret buying, it would be this game. The look and atmosphere scream Final Fantasy, but the story, characters, and gameplay don't. I really wish that Square Enix would have dropped XIII altogether after the sequel, but now we have Lightning Returns coming out. I would much rather see another Nier, Kingdom Hearts 3, or Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Any of those over another installment to the very disappointing Final Fantasy XIII.

[black911]

It wasnt A PS3 Exclusive.

[animegamingnerd]

no just no

[leahcim]

If you think about it they were trying to appeal a totally wider audience (ps fans + xbox fans) now we all now that the xbox fans are not in love we jrpg´s (look for the sales numbers). Square aware of this killed the old idea of a world with towns and charcaters with deep stories (as the 90% of jrpgs). And they created a game with loads of frenetic action and a linear story easy to follow.

[TwistedMetal]

ff 13 fails because it sucks and people want ff versus 13 and not this lighting trilogy crap. the only people who like ff13 are the x360 gamers who like anything because all they have is shooters so any rpg they get there hands on is the best thing since sliced bread becuse the shooters of cod and halo is just so bland and boring.

While on the ps3 rpgs and such are everywhere exclusively, ni no kuni, white knight chronicles, disgea 4, cross edge, kingdom hearts HD remin collection, persona series and so on and so fourth!.

[EverydayGuy]

Anybody who thinks it is a great idea to put a 20 hour long corridor in the game should be demoted.

[Alos88]

One of FFXIII's issues was that they tried to make a "tough but warm hearted" protagonist... but forgot about the warm hearted part. To me, she came across as somewhat cold throught the whole game, even when she was supposedly being compassionate.
It's taken them two games to realize that (as she is currently) Lightning isn't all that deep or well written, and I hope Lightning Returns fixes that.

[KrisButtar]

I enjoyed the article until I read that I need to read more books cause I don't know what a horcruxs are, it says it some Harry potter refence, I've heard of the Harry potter books/movies never seen or read them though.

Anyways I rather enjoyed FF13 it wasnt the best of the series but it wasn't the worst either. i have it on 360 and ps3 cause I wanted to get the achievements and trophies. I also think that 13-2 was better than 13 and I will buy Lightning returns day one as well. She is one of my favorite leads of any ff game

[Elda]

I agree....I enjoyed FF-XIII,but not so much XIII-2 because of things that were missing,I enjoyed all the FF games & XIII happens to be one of my favorites & that probably is because of it not being the NORM,it went another direction & because of the story it had to go that direction & I got it.

[LAWSON72]

Ffxiii was good but had a few issues. Xiii2 was a mess.