Final Fantasy XIII: This generation's Final Fantasy VII

GE writes: "Now, here is where things take a turn, and I’m probably going to get shot, beaten, and murdered for uttering these words, but here we go…Final Fantasy XIII is the Final Fantasy VII of the new generation; making it the second most polarizing game within the FF community! Now, I ask you to hear me out as to why I say such an atrocious fallacy."

[DarkOcelet]

I really think FFXV will be the most polarizing since its going to be the first seamless huge open world FF game. And that will be a game changer.

[Magicite]

Hopefully FF15 will be next years Witcher 3.

[DarkOcelet]

Also we have Horizon and Dark Souls 3 next year.

Its gonna be a huge competition in the RPG genre.

[-Gespenst-]

Strongly disagree, but I do like the XIII trilogy. Lightning Returns is really cool, I just wish it had more in it - it felt foreshortened.

[5yb5n6u]

article said
"Now, here is where things take a turn, and I’m probably going to get shot, beaten, and murdered for uttering these words,"

No, you will not, you will get your clicks and your money.

[G3n3raL86]

XIII this gen's VII? Plz...

[WoshJills]

Did you read the article?

The writer is recognizing that 13 ushered in HD gaming just like 7 ushered in 3D gaming for the Final Fantasy franchise.

So yes -- it's not a subjective statement about quality, but an objective statement of fact.

FF7 : 3D :: FF13 : HD

It's a valid statement.

[Activemessiah]

No it isn't... o_O

[Army_of_Darkness]

@wosh??? Just cause it's the first FF game to go HD you seriously think it deserves to be in the same room as ff7, let alone in the same sentence?! Lol! Every game that hit on last gen consoles were in HD!
FF13 will never be on the same level as FF7 no matter how much games they create that's built within that lame ff13 world.

[pivotplease]

It's just a deceptive statement to make you think something else and take in the clicks. It's like saying Dragon Age Inquisition is this generation's Skyrim because they both have an emphasis on dragons. Basically a bs connection that no one would care to make unless they could spin it into something for hits and ad revenue.

[Ocsta]

Them must be some powerful drugs.

[Magicite]

probably previous gen's?

[SouljAx360]

Nope

[Maywell]

Very strongly disagree

[LightofDarkness]

VII was almost universally PRAISED on release, even by fans of the 16-bit games (like me). I thought VII was just as good, if not better than II (IV) and III (VI) that I'd played before. When I replayed VI afterwards and fully understood the story this time (I was a bit young when I played it first) I conceded that VI was the better game, but VII was frankly amazing when it released. I thought I was done with RPGs thanks to FPS and fighting games, but VII had me crawling back.

XIII was almost universally panned on release, by fans of old and new alike, and the press. There was no polarization in either case, really, the VII haters seemed to only come out years after the game's release and the XIII lovers are absolutely a fringe group. Unless you call 99% vs. 1% "polarizing" I think you'll find this argument is null and void.

[Youngindy21]

Actually the Game Critics praised Final Fantasy XIII. It has an 82 on MetaCritic. IGN gave it an 8.9 out of 10. FFXIII was a good game that sold really well. Fanboys were just expecting a playable version of Final Fantasy VII:Advent Children and when they didn't get that, they threw a B.F.

[LightofDarkness]

Nobody was expecting that. I wasn't. I was expecting a Final Fantasy game, and didn't get one. There's nothing fanboy-ish about that, especially when XII previous entries attest to what your expectations should be.

I'm glad you enjoyed it (although I'd have to question your tastes), but don't even pretend this all boils down to something so trite. There are myriad reasons as to why the game is hated, that have been done to death at this stage. Game critics said it was "good, not great" essentially. That's not exactly praise, more of an acknowledgement that you did OK. Scores seemed inflated, and contrary to what was written in the reviews. Never use metacritic to justify an argument on quality. And I'd frankly listen to the legions of FF fans who demonstrably love the series before I'd listen to a few critics on the internet, fresh from a swanky review event.

[pinkyxyz]

Actually ff13 sold well because if its namesake. If you look at the sales of the sequals that fixed most of the problems with the first, the damage was already done. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

[pivotplease]

Exactly. Bought the first one at release and then never bought another. Literally the only FFs I haven't played and finished. If a trilogy remaster comes out, I would consider getting it just to see how the series improved but it would be a chore to sit through the cringe-worthy dialogue and automated combat system again.

[Adrian_v01]

I'd rather listen to objective reviews then legions of entitled fans.

Never present your opinion as fact. It makes you appear like an infantile douchebag. And tastes differ, some people question your taste for liking JRPGs.

Also, having 12 games before XIII means nothing, as most of the time each new game brought changes to the formula. Final Fantasy games are known for their constant changing, there's no list of things that define a FF game. XIII is as much FF as the prior ones. It was too linear? Well X did it before. The battle system was ATB as done before, characters were controlled by AI as done before.

[LightofDarkness]

*criticizes person for presenting opinion as fact: proceeds to present opinion as fact*

Passive aggressively calling someone an infantile douchebag over videogame opinions truly shows your colours too. Guess I'll see you in the playpen, fellow douche.

And very little of what I said was opinion. Most of it was fact. You are just a pompous, vapid, pseudo-intellectual troll with no ammunition that likes to attempt to attack the arguer before attacking the argument. That just screams "take me seriously as an adult."

[pivotplease]

X wasn't half as linear. The system was ATB that gave you almost no options and encouraged the boredom that is auto-chain. No one liked characters being controlled by AI in....um just XII? (really just gambits). People are still upset that you only control Noctis in XV. Go home. You're drunk.

[Adrian_v01]

@Light

actually I addressed the argument, you just chose to ignore it and not reply to it. Where did I present my opinion? It does show an immature character by not having proper debating skills, FFX was linear, the battle system was ATB before and the characters were controlled by AI before.

[Gardenia]

It's not like that. Every Final Fantasy is different and has pros and cons, but none of them were bad. FFXIII however is the only game in the series that is just terrible. From characters and art style to story and gameplay

If the game didn't have the title Final Fantasy in it, it would be decent at best. For Final Fantasy standards it's a disgrace

[Rai]

That is a weak reason to call it this generations FF7...just because it ushered Final Fantasy into HD doesn't make it anything like FF7.

Review wise it is nothing like FF7, fan reactions to the game is nothing like FF7..

Also I think FF12 was a closer example of action based FF than 13. 12 allowed players to move around, while 13 made it look like it had more action but it was still turn base. FF13 is a step back from the direction FF12 was going. FF12 didn't have restrictions on player movement, it didn't move the player to a battle screen.

I don't see where you're getting the idea people who hates it now will like it later..do you really think that 18 years from now people will go nuts if Square decided to remake FF13 like they did for FF7?

[UNKLE]

I really liked FF13 but the sequels... well its not bad but not perfect.FF7 is overhyped.

[Wolfgang187]

I hated ff13. It was basically a straight line for the 1st 20 hours. While not the best game ever, ff7 was better by leaps and bounds

[Youngindy21]

I thought Final Fantasy XIII was a really good game. Like I said, in my previous comment, the Game reviewers seemed to love it. I think Fanboys just never really gave it a chance. I own and play all the Final Fantasy games, and I never understood why people picked XIII to hate. Was it because it had a female protagonist? Some people loved to say that it was "linear", but in reality ALL Final Fantasy games are linear, esp. at the beginning of them. Perhaps people were too lazy to try to understand the story line? People didn't even give FF XIII-2 a chane which is also a good game, which let's me know people aren't judging the game on it's own merits, they are judging it by what they think it "SHOULD" be, and not on what it is. If anything FF XV looks nothing like a Final Fantasy game.

[Feriku]

I enjoy the semi-linear style of past Final Fantasy games, where there's an overworld to explore (before you ask, yes, I criticize FFX for being linear, too) and multiple places to go. The plot is linear, but you still often can check out a place or two before you can continue. Then there are towns and NPCs, sidequests, etc. to break up the action.

Final Fantasy XIII, in contrast, was a series of hallways shuttling you between plot points until Pulse. And Pulse, while open and therefore more enjoyable, was really only a few open areas with monsters to fight.

As for the story, I don't like it. Stories are subjective, but as far as I was concerned, the cast was terrible (at the start I hated everyone except Sazh), the villain was awful (I couldn't have cared less about him or his goals), and the storytelling was vague. I didn't find it interesting to see characters wandering around hoping to fight a fate they didn't even know what was, and while I liked the story's PREMISE, I disliked its execution.

Just because you enjoyed FFXIII doesn't mean everyone who didn't is a fanboy.

[jambola]

Final fantasy 13 is not this gen, it was last gen

[TuxedoMoon]

Wow! Talk about a click bait article!
So just because FF13 jumped to HD, it's automagically in the same league as FF7? Really? The game that had a terrible development cycle and ended up being a hallway crawler. The game with Cloud in drag and characters with ear bleeding voices and hyper melodramatic stories. Nope! Ff13 is in no way this generation's FF7.

When FF7 came out, there weren't games like it on the market. It had CG cutscenes, 3d models (which was still a very new thing), and great cd quality music. The leap from FF6 to FF7 was HUGE Compared to the leap from FF12 to FF13. Yes, HD looks really pretty but that's about it. FF13 didn't do anything new or spectacular (if you consider being a hallway crawler a spectacular thing, then that's a point I guess?).

FF13 did get praised by critics and sold well, but that was due to namesake. A ton of people ended up hating the game and calling out those major outlets on being paid off.

If it was such a fantastic game, why bother FORCING it into a trilogy. I liked FF13-2 because of the battle system and lack of annoying characters. The Red chocobo theme perfectly describes my feelings about the game: stupid fun. Even though the gameplay was much better, this game and the 3rd game sold very poorly. Most people weren't fooled into the other games because FF13 burned them so hard.

And no, I'm not a FF fanboy I prefer Xenogears over FF7 any day. Just saying. I miss the old Squaresoft...