In Defense Of Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII is ten years old today, which means that 2019 is officially running out of ways to remind us of our mortality. It was a controversial entry in the Final Fantasy series, shifting the series’ usual approach to combat and ditching old traditions to tell a techno-thriller story starring deeply flawed heroes. To this day, fans react dramatically at its very mention. Looking back a decade later reveals a game with scars, but one which also deserves a critical reassessment.

[TeamIcoFan]

Of course, Final Fantasy XV dropped, it's now the spawn of satan, and FF13 shall get the "It's an underrated classic!" treatment.
Only to rinse and repeat when Final Fantasy XVI drops. The toxic part of the fanbase will hate it and attack anyone who dares like it, then claim that Final Fantasy XV is an underrated classic...

[MeteorPanda]

not the right approach to this..

think of it more as the people who genuinely liked the game got drowned out due to the large bandwagon - no one wanted to hear them. now that the bandwagons dragged it's ass away the fans of the game finally can speak out. It happens everywhere. I actually loved and platinumed ffxiii -2, was hard to find a community for the game that wasnt filled with toxic shit

Case in point that fucking trash game Zelda: breath of the wild.

[Spenok]

Good God this... so much this.

[Shiken]

I agree with everything you said, except for the BotW comment. It was a masterpiece and deserved the praise it got. Not sure how that even fits in outaide of a random jab at a Nintendo game.

In any case, I felt XIII was ok and XIII - 2 was great. Never played Lightning Returns.

[rainslacker]

Well....give it enough time and those people who wanted to bandwagon will be in here trying to drown out anyone who may now be trying to say something good about it.

[KaaF]

Funny theory, "nah, it's not because 13 and 15 are bad, it's because part the fanbase just happened to be toxic", what a coincidence that that "toxic" part of the fanbase magically became huge when 13 was released.

Let me propose a more plausible theory to explain the fanbase reaction: "13 sucked and 15 sucked more", no magic needed.

[nommers]

Huge on the island forums separated by the rest of civilization you mean.

Better theory supported by over 20 years of lovely commentary: the ff fan base has been garbage full of whiny complainers. It’s like if I were to have a beer at a bar to have a good time and relax they’d just have to chime in with their non sequitur bs like it was their civic duty. Like stfu for 10 minutes.

[Xaevi]

I really wanna try these out, surprised they never released a collection for the PS4. I mean how bad can they actually be? People tend to exaggerate

[NecrumOddBoy]

I played Part 1 and it is bad.

I did hear it the 3rd part is good though the damage was done.

[rpvenom]

I personally really enjoyed this game. Whereas my bestfriend disliked it lol..

[Teflon02]

I actually really liked 13, 13-2 was okay, and lightning returns was good gameplay wise, but I was lost with the story. but I blame that mostly on 13-2 and it's multiple endings. I never seen a ending that leads to lightning returns beginning or situations for the most part so it seemed pretty out of no where. I will note. FFXIII is the only of the 3 that feel like Final Fantasy Quality, as in it is alot smoother and you can feel that it's a big budget game. The other 2 feel alot smaller budget wise and also aren't as smooth. Atleast on PS and Xbox. On PC, I was able to run 4k 60 on lightning without much issue on a 1060. But 13 had alot of issues holding it. WHen I got my 1080 it basically Brute forced the bad optimization and runs pretty much 60.
Just understanding the base concepts and learning the battle system on a deeper level takes a while as they introduce everything over time

[gangsta_red]

13 got guud in the 3rd act when it opened up the world. 13-2 I really enjoyed with all of it's time travel, 13-3 was complete garbage that I couldn't even finish.

[Elda]

It's my top favorite FF game right next to FFX & I've played most FF games going back to the NES days. I like the characters Lightning,Sazh & Fang,I like the production,graphics,battle system & the beautiful soundtrack.

[FinalAeonX]

I love X, but XIII eh.

VII and X always resonated with me the most. IX was up there too.

[Germaximus]

I've never understood the hate. The world and story is great. It's far better than FFXV.

[Shiken]

The story in XV was not so much bad, as it was badly told IMO.

[goldwyncq]

It's an amazing game that gets so much underserved hate.

[RPGer]

Ffxv is far better in some aspects. No boredom acures in XV or not as much as XIII. XV problems in mismanagment.

XIII is a whole souless linear experience and carries very looong presentation. XIII 2 ia far better ultimately best previous gen RPG. Even XIIILR is far more intresting than the original.

Both Xiii and XV are victims to Yoshida and other SE higher ups who keeps changing things like engines and whatsoever. Lightning should use that gravity thing as in trailer and the prolouge cutscene, but the changes forced altering the battle system and LIghtining as real soldier.

[Traecy]

I enjoyed the game immensely!! It's a favorite.

[SegaSaturn669]

FF13 has the worst variety of gameplay, soundtrack, characters. It's like a 6/10 game rated normally but if you compare it to a mainstream FF game, it should be around 2/10

[jwillj2k4]

There’s nothing techno nor thrilling about this atrocity.

[Father__Merrin]

13 was incredible. The characters and the sheer amount of locations were a joy to experience. I don't get all that it's linear and not open world it was brilliant, the music was also brilliant but damn you Barthandelus bosses!!!

[Elda]

The first encounter with Barthandelus was a MFker,it took me at least 4 long tries to finally beat that ass.

[AnotherGamer]

Why people keep defending this game? It was that meh.

[Dwarrior]

I know. It’s inconceivable that people can have different tastes than you!

[Elda]

Okay! Some folks here don't get that at all.

[discobastard]

Utter garbage, that game

[Dwarrior]

A lot of the criticisms that were leveled at 13 could also be leveled at 10. 10 also had some annoying characters, and was also strictly linear. And 10 is considered one of the high points of the series and a PS2 classic.

So yeah, I loved both games. 13 was a technological masterpiece, that still looks good today. And that soundtrack was as good as any other entry in the series.

I can’t speak to either of the sequels as I didn’t play either of them.

[Spenok]

I always did enjoy XIII myself, and really wish it would get the remastered treatment. Especially on Switch so I can play it while at work lol.

[Kaedro]

Final Fantasy is my favorite franchise, but XIII should be called Final Fantasy Corridor XIII.

[staticall]

TL;DR Graphics and animations are still good, story was confusing, gameplay/fights felt interesting in the beginning, character progressing is very slow. If i had to, i would rate this game 6.5/10

I did earn a platinum in Final Fantasy XIII and let me tell you, game is meh. I mean, graphics was great (and still is, IMO), fights are very interesting at first, you have to balance buffs, debuffs, healing and attacks. But later, at around 60-70%, it turns into a borefest, each battle feels the same. Character progression is also very slow and doesn't feel rewarding at all, just «+1 to STR» and, occasionally, a new skill.

But my biggest complains are:
1. Ve-e-e-ery slow start, you get some freedom only after 40-50% of the game or so, before that you'll get a metric ton of tutorials, narrow corridors and few boss fights;
2. Plot is...confusing, i think is the best description i can find. This is an excerpt from Wiki on their plot
[spoiler]
In Cocoon, the citizens of the town of Bodhum are being evicted, or Purged, after coming in contact with something from Pulse. Over the course of the game, the player is shown flashbacks of the events of the previous thirteen days, which began when a fal'Cie from Pulse was discovered near Bodhum. Lightning's sister Serah had found the fal'Cie from Pulse and been changed into a l'Cie by it. Lightning and Sazh derail a Purge train bound for Pulse in an attempt to save Serah. As Snow leads his resistance group NORA to rescue the Purge exiles, several of them are killed. Heading to the fal'Cie Anima to save Serah, Snow is joined by two of the exiles: Hope and Vanille. The two parties meet at the fal'Cie, and find Serah just as she turns to crystal. Anima then brands them as l'Cie and they are cast out into a different part of Cocoon. During this transformation, the newly crested l'Cie all have the same vision: a monster called Ragnarok. Arguing over the ambiguous nature of the dreamed Focus, the party finds Serah in her crystallized form; Snow remains with her as the others leave.
[/spoiler]

Purged, Pulse, Anima, Cocoon, fal'Cie, l'Cie... And this excerpt is from the beginning of the game, game just throws this at you and expect you to understand everything. Maybe it's just be, but i lost all interest in the story rather quickly. Cutscenes, although slow, are nice and still look good;
3. Side quests not only appear late in the game and they feel uninspired. It's either kill a boss, kill a group of enenies or find and deliver some resources;
4. Whoever decided to add «Treasure Hunter» trophy must suffer. It's so frustrating and required a lot of grinding, you don't know what you're missing and have to keep checklist. And even with checklist, i still had to craft and buy some items multiple times.

P. S.: Haven't played in FF XIII-2 or Lightning Returns yet.

[Chocoburger]

I played FF13 for the first time in 2016, years after reading about how bad it was. So I came in expecting a terrible game. Instead I got a game that I really enjoyed from start to finish. Yeah, it was linear for the first 60% of the adventure, and that didn't bother me at all. In fact it was quite the opposite, I found the linearity a breath of fresh air amongst all the so-big-I'm-getting-annoyed game worlds of the modern era.

FF13-2 felt like a downgrade with plenty of time-wasting grinding and constant return trips to the same locations.

FF-13-3 felt poorly designed and poorly told. The final boss encounter and ending were fantastic. The rest wasn't good at all though.

I have the platinum trophy for all 3 games, each successive game look less time to plat than the previous one. However with the downgrade in quality with each successive game, it felt like progressively longer because of how much of a chore it was to play.