Gary Swaby at The Koalition writes:
"When it comes to Final Fantasy, there’s rarely a female character that can be seen as iconic as Cloud, Tidus, Squall, Zidane and Zack. Tifa, Aries and Yuna are strong candidates, but they suffer from the criticisms that have become an ongoing narrative in gaming ethics..."
Final Fantasy 13 was first introduced to us back in 2009, almost four years after Final Fantasy 12 was released, and fans had been eagerly anticipating the next installment. But when it finally arrived, there were mixed reactions, including complaints about its linearity, the lack of towns and NPCs, and the limited control over the characters. At the time, Square Enix kept its game production behind closed doors and didn't take in a lot of feedback — especially from Western fans.
The game has been revisited by many different Final Fantasy fans since then, and some, like myself, have come to love it again. Almost all staple entries in the series have found their way to modern consoles, so it's about time that the FF13 trilogy gets a remaster
I've been thinking about this. I agree. While I really disliked it at first I never played it again. After hating ff15 so damn much I just think it can't be worse then 15 and if I'm not mistaken atleast it's turn based. I need more of that in my life.
Recently replayed them and I agree a remaster would be great. The complaints about linearity are fair, but they only really apply to the first half of the first game and while I agree that it would've been nice to have proper towns, minigames and subquests, it didn't detract from the intriguing story, interesting characters, tactical gameplay and amazing soundtrack in my opinion.
XIII-2 fixes a lot of the issues of XIII and expands on the story in interesting ways. The combat and progression builds on top of the systems of XIII and the nonlinearity and discoverability of secrets is a big inprovement over the original game. It's easily the best game of the trilogy.
Lightning Returns was probably a bit too experimental for it's own good. It tried to reinvent the wheel for no reason. The solo party for most of the game and the outfit based combat felt like a downgrade over XIII-2 combat system. It does have a unique vibe, but the plot kinda goes off the rails and many of the story beats didn't land as much for me as they did in the first two games. The race against time aspect was an interesting idea, but it never felt like it mattered, because it wasn't much of a challenge to manage the remaining time even while doing all the subquests.
As we celebrate Final Fantasy’s 35th anniversary, let’s look back at the underrated soundtracks of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy.
It's alright but I mean with so many other FF games it's not even in the top 10 for me
You just can't beat IX, VII, X and my personal favourite VIII when it comes to music
Even the theme song sucks, instead of just having an English version of the Japanese theme they got X Factors Leona Lewis to do the song which didn't sound like FF theme song.
I agree, regardless of the general consensus of the game itself, FF rarely lets down when it comes to the music at least.
After about five years since the last patch was released for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Steam version on PC, Square Enix released a new patch today.
i find it sich a waste that they didnt release them on the ps4.
i know alot of ppl dont like 13, but 13-2 is amazing ha.
I got all three games on Steam last weekend. I am really looking forward to Lightning Returns which I haven't played.
But I decided to start at the first one and play them in order (in glorious 60fps) since I have only beat them once and that was near their release.
And really what I have to say is 13 the first one is amazing. All the art and the music are really top notch. And the cinematic cut-scenes, oh man they are so good. I really don't understand the people who don't like cut-scenes... well I do I think they have ADHD and can't sit through them.
And the combat is really well balanced especially the boss fights, but even the random battles. I find that every combat has a specific pattern you need to learn and that pattern changes based on number type and combination of enemies.
And the story which was quite confusing the first time around, now makes a lot more sense and is really enjoyable.
It's such a shame the game didn't sell well I doubt we'll ever see a JRPG with that kind of budget again.
I really feel after seeing everything last gen had to offer I can look back and really see that it was in fact an exceptional game.
And I agree with a lot of what you say about Lightning, she is a pretty good character, and it's extremely rare for any game series to be so devoted or to flesh out a character so much.
I'm really looking forward to Final Fantasy 15, I can't wait to see what they do with it.
This is a joke right
She's like one of the worst main characters in Final Fantasy
Bland, boring, depressing, no backstory to why she's like that, comes off as a b****.
She's like a Plank of wood and not the one Jonny 2x4 would carry around, his friend had more personality then her.
Thank you for writing this. Lightining, and the entire FFXIII series, is greatly underappreciated by gamers. She really is one of the strongest and best females in gaming ever. She doesn't match the awesomeness of The Boss, but she is definitely up there for me as well.
While I agree with a fair share of the points made, I feel like Final Fantasy VI had far better female characters in Terra and Celes. In fact, many of their character points are reused wholesale in Lightning. Terra took "becoming a monster" in a more interesting direction, and both had the female Soldier vibe, however both had one thing Lightning never managed. Emotion.
She's the heroin of the worst Final Fantasy games. Even if she's alright as a character (and that's what she is, just alright) that doesn't change that her series of games were a huge letdown.
Also I like how they conveniently leave Terra out as she's probably the best Final Fantasy character that doesn't fall into any of the character narratives listed. And I don't recall Tifa or Aries being that sexualized.