The Final Fantasy XIII Saga is the Most Unappreciated Set of Games in the Series

Final Fantasy XIII was rather divisive. While its gameplay and combat system were superb, the story was a bit over pretentious and it was extremely linear, with the player simply going from place to place on a pre-set path. The characters were wonderful though, the combat was intricate and completely customizable, and there was a level of difficulty — especially during the boss battles. You had to think quick on your toes with the paradigm system and be able to quickly switch your player’s roles in order to survive. It is the best Final Fantasy battle system yet, but fans are so hung up on the game’s linearity and complex story that the game gets so much unwanted hate from fans of the series, who actually prefer story over gameplay.

[DarkOcelet]

I enjoyed playing the trilogy alot but what i didnt enjoy is the characters and the story.

They should have fleshed out the characters more and the story should have been less complicated with the FalCie and all that crap.

[-Foxtrot]

If they characters can't get fleshed out over three games then there's something wrong

The game was just bad. Even if it wasn't FF and got the benefit of the doubt it would still be bad...peoples opinions wouldn't really change.

[Bansai]

Probably my worst memories with the Final Fantasy franchise are tied to all XIII games. So no, it's not underapreciated in my opinion, far from it.

I'm just glad I bought XIII-2 and LR very cheap after I got burned by XIII.

[johndoe11211]

@Bansai

You're a brave soul. I never bought XIII-2 or LR after playing the abomination that was XIII. The writer of this article couldn't be more than 14 to make such a statement. After playing FF 1-12 no true fan of the franchise would enjoy the XIII series.

[MRMagoo123]

I think there are too many ppl that like it imo. It's gotten way more praise than it deserved, it was basically a corridor shooter not an rpg and it should have been aborted. WORST final fantasy games ever made.

[zeuanimals]

Forreal. I think it's appreciated just fine. Actually, it's probably a bit too much.

@MRMagoo

Being linear is fine. FFX was pretty great and the bulk of the game is extremely linear. XIII had the displeasure of being linear and having nothing else to do as you go along. I'll echo the stuff about the story and characters too.

[zidane1341]

Ff xiii was a corridor shooter? Hmm somebody doesn't know what they are talking about.

[k2d]

Rightfully so.

[zeuanimals]

@Zidane:

Pretty sure he's not being literal by calling it a shooter... Pretty sure most people know what the games are like and calling it a corridor shooter is simply to illustrate that it's so far from being like other FF games, and not in a good way. And much like a corridor shooter, your only meaningful interaction with other living things is to kill them. There's no cities, settlements, etc. where you can spend your downtime exploring anything not related to combat.

[Adrian_v01]

@zeuanimals

FFX was linear. Though I agree the story of X had a better presentation. Had they presented the whole fal'cie l'cie connection through the story instead of logs it would have been good. I found the battle system of XIII great.

Now for towns, I didn't mind the lack of them. It made sense with the story, they were wanted criminals, freely exploring towns wouldn't have made sense. Though there could have been found ways to implement towns. It wasn't a bad game, it was average. XIII was the best in the trilogy, XIII-2 messed too much with time travel, and LR was just meh.

[DragonKnight]

XIII is in no way underappreciated. There are people who actually like it, and apparently Japan likes it the most, or disiikes it the least. It was directed by Motomu Toriyana, the same genius that gave us Brother's Angels (FFX-2) instead of the FFX prequel the game was supposed to be. Motomu knows he lacks talent, that's why every FF game he directs has to be spun the wrong way so that it won't be directly compared to better FF games. Too bad they always are. FFX-2 was originally slated to be Braska, Auron, and Jecht's story and no one ever implied it had to be just like FFX, but Toriyama said it was too similar and so he created FF Dressup instead.

Fast forward to FFXIII, he flat out said the game was inspired by Western Shooters. Specifically removing a great deal of player control so as to not interfere with the story (story based level progression), and the linearity of the areas was, again, to force story focus. He was trying to turn FFXIII into a shooter-like RPG so that he could be different. But he screwed up the story, the characters, and the gameplay big time because he has no talent.

FFXIII and its sequels are by far the worst thing to happen to Final Fantasy, and in a franchise that includes Mystic Quest and FFII (the real one, not FFIV), and FFX-2, and that one terrible mobile game filled with MTs, and even Dirge of Cerberus (which did Toriyama's ideas much better), that's saying a lot.

[himdeel]

SE wanted people to like this franchise and forced it on people, when NO ONE wanted anything after the first 13.

[DevilOgreFish]

It's not too bad of a series in my opinion, the other games before though were much better imo.

[Man_Marmalade]

It was too linear. Don't forget how much they had to cut the game apart in order to put it on the 360. A lot of the gameplay from the early videos didn't even show up in the final product.

[nitus10]

I have enjoyed all the FF games since 4 but personally I liked FFXII best because of it's non-linearity and it's battles taking place in the location where you encounter the enemy (unique for FF games).

@Man_Marmalade

Granted FFXIII was linear but then again so were most of the FF games. Take a look at FFX and tell me if that is not basically on rails. Granted that towards the end you can take the airship most anywhere but you could do that with FFXIII when you got to Grand Pulse's surface.

Most RPG's are fairly linear if you only follow the main quest however what makes for a non-linear RPG is the side quests which sometimes can lead into numerous sub quests.

[Michiel1989]

@man_Marmalade Provide evidence that they had to cut stuff to put it on x360. You are just speculating and you have totally no clue how development works if you think they have to cut content because of dvds instead of bluerays. Nice try buddy but ur full of nonsense.

Newsflash, a lot of content from trailers, especially early trailers don't make it into the final game. Try making an opinion based on facts not based on: didn't like the game, its on xbox now as wel so its xbox's fault.

[rainslacker]

@Michel

Here you go

http://www.engadget.com/201...

While not specifically stating the 360's DVD medium as the reason for the cuts, there is no logical reason why that content wouldn't have been included on the much more expansive BR disc since it was completed content.

Now to be fair, in the same interview, with the actual quotes, which I can't seem to find, they said it was cut during production, which is typical.

But what was also said was a lot of content was cut right at the end. So...what happened right at the end of FFXIII's production? As I recall, it was the announcement that it was coming to 360.

Dev claims that it wasn't fit for the game. Seems odd to go through the entire process only to be cut at the end though doesn't it? While it's not unheard of, it's never that much, and if that's the case, it show's some faults in their production process...but that's another topic.

Face it, 24GB vs 50GB on a franchise known to use every last bit of space available for the prior 6 games. What is the logical conclusion...that the completed content wasn't fit...or that MS parity clause reared it's ugly head and SE didn't want to release a 6-7 disc game?

While I understand the desire and sometimes need to have an actual source for making claims, there are also times when you have to read between the lines, and go beyond what is stated and use some common sense to come to the most likely scenario. SE will never say that they cut content because they brought it to the 360. It's not kosher, and it would only make them look bad. But saying it wasn't a proper fit, and typical in any production, relieves them of any wrong-doing, while most people never even consider it.

Pulse was completely devoid of any life outside monsters. Nothing. It was barren. Despite there being a story reason for this, Pulse was nowhere near the standards of FF games in terms of the open areas of it's games. I can't imagine SE just said that was fit for the game, when all that other stuff which adds life and random cool stuff to do is cut. I know it's trendy to hate on FFXIII and SE, but it defies logic that they just went completely mental about leaving out certain aspects of FF because it wasn't fit, but it makes sense they'd do it to capitalize on the ever growing and popular in the west 360 market.

Just like they did with ROTTR, they left their fans in the lurch for what they thought would be greener pastures, and in the process, they've pissed off their fans, only this time they pissed many of them off, and not just ones on a certain console.

[zeuanimals]

@Michiel: Well, we don't have any testimony for it being a problem with FFXIII, but we do for GTAIV.

http://n4g.com/news/38093/g...

It's not hard to extrapolate this to other games that may have storage issues. I mean, DVDs only hold up to 7GB for crying out loud! Most games are way above that nowadays. And MS preferred devs not releasing multidisc games as multidisc games last gen required hard drives, and not all 360s came with hard drives.

Edit: Ahh, Rainslacker beat me to it while also being much more comprehensive.

[Godmars290]

@nitus10:
That FF13 was so obviously linear, with nothing which distracted from that linearity like mini-games, is what makes it so bad. Hell, even FF10 had blitzball.

@Michiel1989:
How about not being butt hurt over how the game preformed on the 360, and only on the 360?

[Godmars290]

@rainslacker:
People refuse to notice much less admit that the 7th console generation was broken. That among PC standards being adopted/forced onto consoles and console hardware not being made to necessary spec besides, was the mess - and war - between digital and physical which caused crap just like this.

Nevermind that FF15 is very much apology and proof of Square's mistakes with FF13. Not that I don't think that they've made new ones.

[rainslacker]

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say broken. It was a pretty good gen game wise overall, and saw three successful consoles, as well as the rise of the PC market into the mainstream.

I think it was a very turbulent generation. Lots of things going on, and lots of changes which put gamers off from the new things being done. Much of it was warranted, some of it wasn't, and in the end, it just seems that the generation was lackluster. The increase in hate in the console wars only caused this to be worse IMO.

I think the 7th gen won't go down in history as a great generation, but will be seen as a successful one. I'm disappointed that with all the changes in the console market, which in theory should have been great for the gamers, the industry itself decided to make it into a consumer unfriendly market which wanted to take advantage of gamer's wallets instead of providing compelling content that could stand on it's own. So many changes were made for increasing revenues, and so many "trends" played up as becoming the mainstream or majority, that it's put everyone's perspectives out of whack, and it's become hard to discuss things because everyone now just assumes instead of verifies or uses simple common sense.

[Godmars290]

Wasn't going to agree with you, but yes, too many choices were made based more on profit than consumer access or consideration. Then defended by overly loyal consumers because "their" console came under fire.

Still, for all the good games which managed to come out, there were way too many potential good ones canceled. Then there are the ones re-released on the X1 and PS3. Not to mention FF13, its sequels which tried to fix the mistakes of the first, or FF15, which is still trying to say that nothing was wrong with FF13 while being technically different from it in - almost - every way.

[SegaSaturn669]

How could you ever enjoy the combat or hall walking?

Combat: Mash X button until the battle ends.

[MRMagoo123]

Yup worst combat system ever in a final fantasy. I auto attacked the entire game and still beat it and I only did it to see if you could. The games combat was made for idiots that can't understand strategy.

[goldwyncq]

The paradigm system says hello. You're never forced to use auto battle at any point.

[xPaYDaYx]

I disagree, the characters are the only reason I continued to play the trilogy. FFXIII's gameplay was pretty good, XIII-2 was pretty good too and I couldn't stand the gameplay in LR. I still stuck through to the end though so I could see the happy ending because I actually loved the characters.

[colonel179]

From my experience:
I really enjoyed XIII, from the story to the gameplay. I even read the story that came out that told what happened after the ending of the game, and I was really excited for the sequel.

With that said, when I played X-III, I hated it!! The story was a mess, they got into time travel and stuff that didn't make sense. The new protagonist (the guy with blue pants) sucked. I really disliked him. I did try to finish the game, but at 3/4, I just abandoned it.

Because of that, I didn't even touched Lighting Returns.

[kaizokuspy]

FF13 taught me to never preorder any games unless I've enjoyed the beta. That game let me down so bad. The characters, story, and gameplay were horrendous. If the whole game world was as open as gran pulse it could've been a great game on that merit alone, but alas, all the good stuff didn't happen until the end of the game. I really hated hope. Worst character in FF history that I had to listen to whine consistently. I know his mom died and all, but he never really came into his own for me. He just never stopped whining. As for Lightning, she seemed pretty bland as a character and only tacked on as a protagonist to please female gamers. Best game she was ever in was ff14 in a themed fate. I'm bitter....after all these years I'm still so salty about this game I could put all the salt mines in the world out of business with what this game still has me producing.

[Apollosupreme]

If you didn't like the story or the characters then how did you come to like this role playing game trilogy?

These games are adequately appreciated. Square brass has an idea of where the series should go and they don't care if that aligns with the fans. So be it, and we don't have to praise their games or buy them.

[DarkOcelet]

I liked the gameplay. And Sazh and Fang were pretty good too.

FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns gameplay were pretty good too.

[AznGaara]

I actually liked the battle system and Lightning & Fang as characters but aside from those things... Yeah you're pretty much spot on. LR was probably the ultimate realization of that battle system, it was just too late at that point.

[Muzikguy]

I think these games were the worst in the series BY FAR (ffxiiii because I didn't play the other two). Square Enix won't admit they screwed up. I can't believe they think these games were actually good. I've been a fan of these games since 3 and 13 was my least enjoyed. I had to painstakingly finish the game just to see if it ever got better. It didn't, and I felt like I was ripped off

I agree with the statement above that characters have more than enough time to get "fleshed out" over the course of a trilogy. Means the games were filled with meaningless crap

[Name Last Name]

FF13's was actually good but to appreciate it you had to read an in-game enciclopedia which is ridiculous.

[Kalebninja]

Its annoying since almost everyone who says the 13 series sucked only played the first game. If anything at least play the second, its stands out from the other two and is actually really good while lightning returns is just good. The funny thing is the best one in the series is the one where you don't play as lightning.

[nogoodusernamesleft]

i played the second one and only got like 3 hours into the game before i stopped playing anymore. ff13 2 is only slightly better. that's about it. i wasted enough time on the first one

[Kalebninja]

you played 3 hours of a 25+ hour game and say its only slightly better... you cant judge an entire game base on a fraction of it. 3 hours is hardly passed the beginning

[nogoodusernamesleft]

again i felt burnt out by the first ff 13 game. square enix had its chance. what little i played of ff 13 2 it wasn't better enough. too late now i've moved on. maybe ff 15, just MAYBE

[Omegasyde]

Kaleb

if a game cant get your attention in the first 3 hours WHY on earth would you waste more time on it????

Its like watching a movie then state everything BUT the ending sucked - why would you waste your time?

[Kalebninja]

@omega this is completely different from a movie he played less than an 8th of the game that 3 hour thing you think is right doesnt make sense for every game. 3 hours of the order 1886 and you're halfway through it, well enough to judge it. 3 hours of 13-2 and you've barely scratched it. I gave fallout 4 20 hours before i put it down, he put it down because he wasted enough time with the first one. you wouldnt watch a 3 hour movie for 20 minutes then say it sucks right?

[rainslacker]

I had a hard time with XIII-2 at first. It was confusing and seemed to be trying to hard with it's story, and the battle system was weak at first.

But going more into the game, it really did become a great game. Combat was awesome, although not if you're looking for more traditional ATB, and the story was really good. It wasn't perfect by any means, but was fun with characters you actually came to care about. Even the antagonist you couldn't help but care about.

LR was good for it's game play, the story was stupid though. Not a bad story, but it played fast and loose with the lore of the series, and the lore itself was never really delved into in the prior games, so it made it even more confusing. It shouldn't have been confusing, because it's a rather simple story, but SE found a way.

@Omega

I can think of numerous JRPG's where I was bored or frustrated the first 3 hours. But when you get past that 5-10 hour mark and it just blows you away. Xenosaga, Suikoden, heck...FF7 was boring the first 3-4 hours IMO, and many more. Three hours into XIII-2 and you haven't even gotten a glimpse of the real story yet, and the game play hasn't opened up to become interesting.

[Omegasyde]

^^^

Sorry your rebuttal is weak.

If I cant stand a movie for 20 minutes theres no way I am wasting my time finishing it. On to the next movie. Preference is preference but to play a game for hours on end not enjoying it, you are then letting the game "play you".

Same goes for games. If there is a point in any game where its pretty much "dull" to play it - I stop playing it. My most recent example was farcry 4 - once you uncover the top of the map , the story just hits a screaching halt. Should I finish it since i invested 10+ hours despite the next 10 being a snooze fest? What if the situation was reverse (the first 10 are dull)?

Thank gawd for the ability to still buy used and trade in games I no longer want.

[rainslacker]

@Omega

To each their own then. While I do kind of agree, it would take a lot for me to give up on a JRPG due to a slow build up. Being completely bored isn't the same as it being dull, and having played a lot of JRPG's, I know that a slow build up is very common for the ones that end up wowing you more than other games come the end. This isn't typical for movies, so i can understand you there, but it's pretty common for books and some JRPG's.

[SamPao]

I actually enjoyed 13 more than 13-2
finished 13 played 50 hours.
played 13-2 for about 12h and did not finish it. though maybe I will go back. But the story wasnt nearly as good as 13s story

[Elda]

Totally agree.

[Eiyuuou]

If anything XIII-2 did have a FF-worthy antagonist. Caius was awesome!

[sinspirit]

You don't realize that there is no business in a 30 hour game being 30 hours if the first 5 hours are boring, lacking, and there for no good reason. Just make it a 25 hour game or fix it.

Anyways, it was a cliche set of games. Unnoriginal and ruined aspects that the FF franchise is prided in.

[phoenixwing]

I liked 13-2 as well. It's the only game I really like out of the 3.

[trenso1]

i actually enjoyed the first one more compared to the second one. The time travel bull shit just wore me down but it did make up for the last ones mistakes i still have to play the third one but, im hoping for a ps4 remaster

[rainslacker]

I think the first had a much grander and epic story, but felt the 2nd had better game play and a more cohesive story presentation once you got past the initial confusion of the time travel stuff....which honestly should have just been left out as it served no purpose to the lore. If the first game had the same quality of story cohesion and development(story and character), then it would have been a much better game.

[Kalebninja]

EDIT. wrong reply********

[Segata]

13-2 is like saying the shit I took today is better than the shit I took yesterday. It's still shit either way.

[Kalebninja]

its absolutely not like that, what its like saying is the sequel is better than the original. it's that simple of a concept.

[KimikoGaming]

13 was very mediocre, so many people played it and refused to play 13-2 and Lightning Returns. But 13-2 was a really good game, and Lightning Returns was still good.

[FallenAngel1984]

FFXIII doesn't have the best battle system. The biggest critique is how you're forced to stick with one leader per battle, and if your leader dies then you get a game over.

FFXIII-2 greatly improved upon that battle system while also adding in more action commands. It's my favorite installment in the trilogy.

FFXIII:LR wasn't as interesting since you only had a dull Lightning in your party.

I enjoyed playing the through the trilogy just to get my own opinion of it.

[Cyb3r]

The thing I hated most about the FF13 saga was that I found it to be a bit childish, the story was kind of like a Disney family movie. IMO FF13 looked like it was aimed at a younger audience. Especially when you compare it to FF7 which had more serious themes to the story like Aerith getting murdered by Sephiroth and bit of strong language here and there. Most of the characters in FF13 had a happy go lucky personality compare them to FF7's Cloud,Barret and Sephiroth. I hope Square-Enix use serious themes in FF15 and not make another family friendly Final Fantasy

[PhoenixUp]

Sounds like you played an entirely different game. FFXIII's main cast were always down on themselves and going through constant states of depression.

Idk where you're getting this family friendly image from

[Elda]

I co-sign.It was about purging,extermination & segregation.

[nommers]

I think he's referring to more of how the characters were, which I agree completely. They were very cliche and childish..spouting a few comments here and there but rarely engaging with a conversation or anything remotely interesting outside of the main narrative. It made the world feel empty as a result and we didn't really get to engage or feel for the world of Pulse or Cocoon.

[Kalebninja]

What series did you play? There was alot of death in the 13 saga to a point where death was the theme of the games. The ending of 13-2 was very much not Disney considering you die and everything is consumed by darkness. Even in the first one your friends sacrifice themselves to stop cocoon from being destroyed. By the end of it all lightning literally became the goddess of death and killed god after reaping everyone's souls lol.

[goldwyncq]

Childish? That's nonsense. It's easily one of the darker games in the series. The party throughout the game are treated as fugitives and are forced upon to complete a task that will ultimately lead to the destruction of their world, or else suffer a fate worse than death. Even the characters who seemed happy go lucky like Sazh and Vanille had deep troubling issues that got very apparent later on.

[trenso1]

yea you're just another bandwagon hater. You clearly didn't play the game if you think the story was childish and "disney like"

[no_more_heroes]

I enjoyed playing all three, but a decent amount of the criticism (especially for the first one) was fairly accurate. For a story that's supposed to be about defying fate, they sure seem to do exactly what the bad guys want throughout the entire thing.

...and Vanille's voice. That was pretty bad.

Character wise...meh, I feel like I've seen worse, even Hope (who is a kid). Nobody's perfect. At least it was decently acted (mostly).

Out of the three, XIII-2 was the most enjoyable to play hands down. If it wasn't for a certain detail of the ending of LR, I'd like it more than I do.

[Relientk77]

"The Final Fantasy XIII Saga is the Worst Set of Games in the Series"

I fixed it

Hopefully Final Fantasy XV is good

[AsheXII]

They are a lot better than the NES games.

[PhoenixUp]

FFXIII-2 is the best installment. I wish FFXIII:LR built upon that foundation instead of throwing it out the window and making a new installment

[-Foxtrot]

You know what I really hate about the FF13 series...the fans who constantly try to tell the world how FF13 is actually amazing and how the "haters" are in the minority when really they are.

Like the game...fine but don't shove it in my face how "good it was".

If you want a Final Fantasy game which has been shit on and is underrated as hell because of real reasons then look at Final Fantasy VIII. The nitpicks of that games is unreal...things handed down for years where any person, even those who haven't played it will scoop them exaggerated lies up as facts and state how bad it is when it's not. It actually did things better then FF7 yet hardly anyone will give them a nod for it.

Final Fantasy 13 was a underwhelming game but a shit Final Fantasy game

Lightning was bland, boring and pretty depressing with no real developed backstory to why she is like that. At least grumpy sods like Cloud and Squall had character development to show you why they were like that and at the end of the game changed for the better because of the development shown throughout the games story

The other characters were either annoying or unlikable

The story was an absolute mess. Hell every FF has it's share of story problems where you can spot plot holes, cheesy scenes or "what the hell" moments but FF13 was so bad that the rest of it had to be put down into logs to read.

The battle system was very uncreative. Basically it came down to luck and mashing the X button half the time.

One character could only be used in battle, they die you all die.

Summons were basically Transformers Summons in disguise

The theme music even...Leona Lewis, X Factor, manufactured crap...come on. Not to mention it wasn't even the same song translated like the others or done by the same Japanese singer.

Linear, plot A to B, structure

No NPCs

No Towns

No Airship

No backtracking

Hardly any side quests

Not much to find, most things were in the item shop

I could go on...

It's Final Fantasy, it had something to live up to and it failed at being a Final Fantasy game. So I don't understand how you could like it. I'm more ticked off reviewers gave out perfect scores and the like yet months later did the "FF13 wasn't that good" articles like they were on our side. MGSV is going to get the same this year, just you watch.

[trywizardo]

every FF is different from the other , i think that's part of FF charm
that's why numbered FF have different characters and different world , so fans don't compare it to the others (and the ones with the same num "13 trilogy" have the same mechanics with the same characters)
are you gonna hate XV because its more action and less RPG ?!

[chadwarden]

You know what I really hate about FF fans? They want the same game over and over and over and over again. Never want anything new or refreshing. No wonder they hate everything. Must have miserable lives as most cynics do.

[Teflon02]

This is Why I thought XIII's series is great. I's completely refreshing and unique