FFXIII Review

[siric]

I am currently slogging through Final Fantasy XIII, and I just finished reading all the glowing reviews of this boring and mindless game.

Maybe I've just grown out of Final Fantasy games, or RPGs in general (I doubt it, though, I was addicted to Dragon Age Origins for the three weeks it took me to beat it), but this game is BOOOOORING.

The story has some incredible potential, and reading the back story information in the datalog gives me goosebumps...but then I go back to actually playing the game.

The battle system is about as elegant as Dead or Alive 3 (old school Xbox) had. All it takes is to recognize the enemy you are fighting, then if you have used Libra on it, just use autobattle for the game to choose the best attacks to use on the enemies. The battles consist of pressing the following buttons:

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

(I'm on a PS3)

Tougher fights (you could call them minibosses) are more like:

X X X X X X X L1 Down Down X X X L1 UP Up X X X X X X X X

The cutscenes are about every three screens worth of running, and they are small snippets of whiny characters I don't care about talking about pasts that are too cliche to be interesting.

Characters are generic FF stereotypes, mostly recycled from FF X. Snow is the "optimistic," hard to keep down Tidus. Vannil is the overpowerful young school girl-esque character who is always cheerful for no apparent reason (Rikku). Lightning is just all around boring. Driven beyond any personality traits beside moodiness, everything she does she does out of some drive that never really makes sense (a female combination of Cloud and Squall).

Graphics: very, very, very, pretty. But as any guy who has ever scored a 9 or a 10 knows, good looks don't stand on their own for more than a couple of hours. And good looks are about all the game has.'

Please, please tell me someone agrees with me. If not, then I have just outgrown the massive alternate realities that Final Fantasy games bring, and that thought depresses me.

[Ant-LOX]

I was gonna cop it to see pretty images - but they threw a few HD trailers on the PSN, and that was enough.

[DudeEMETIB]

I've never played a Final Fantasy game. I want to try them out, but I want to start with the first...at oldest I only ever find the 7th....what do I do?

[The Living Dead]

Start with FFX. The stories are not connected at all, so you do not have to start from the beginning. In fact, I, II, and III have very little story at all and I find them boring. X is the most accessible for a new player, in my opinion.

[Ant-LOX]

7 & 8 are on the PlayStation Network for $10 a piece. You can play them on your PSP and PS3.

[bluecrucial]

I used to like FF7 a lot but now that I'm older I think it bugs me a little bit that the characters are ultimately just a shell to hold all of the materia (the spells you can use).

I think sometime soon I want to go back and see the older ones where your party members have unique jobs.

[evadwolrab]

I just can't get into them. Sadpanda.

[hoshnobobo2.0]

Originally Posted by The Living Dead

Start with FFX. The stories are not connected at all, so you do not have to start from the beginning. In fact, I, II, and III have very little story at all and I find them boring. X is the most accessible for a new player, in my opinion.

i fucking loved 10

[TheInfamousBiGD]

Originally Posted by DudeEMETIB

I've never played a Final Fantasy game. I want to try them out, but I want to start with the first...at oldest I only ever find the 7th....what do I do?

I recommend you get a PSX emulator and you can get all the FF from 2 up if I am correct. FF Anthology (these are 5 & 6 or 4 & 5 a little retouched with better graphics then the SNES), FF VII (Considered the best FF game by a lot of FF heads), FF VIII (Is not one of the best but it's ok), FF IX (When back to their old school theme and I enjoyed it very much) and FF Tatics (Is strategy mixed with RPG not everyone I've spoken to likes it but give it a go anyway). Ignore what that chick said FF X is horrible I would say it was the last half good FF, the online FF XI MMORPG was not for me I am not a fan of MMORPGs, FF XII was meh and I haven't played XIII yet still saving up money for a PS3

[fluxquanta]

I'm having trouble understanding when any menu based RPG wasn't just "hit x repeatedly". They've always been that, all the way back to the NES (except it was "A", not "X"). I doubt they changed things up as far as gameplay mechanics goes that much with XIII. Nevertheless, I don't have a PS3 or 360, and don't intend on buying another game system ever again (except for handhelds), so I probably won't be playing it to compare for myself.

I personally liked VIII best, but I agree that they're generally all the same game. Although I wish there were more menu based RPGs out there. It's too much bullshit nowadays.