Final Fantasy XIII Reviews

Fringe

Towns were great! Even the irrelevant dogs that bark at you when you interact with them added a little to the atmosphere. It's sad to see it all gone.

ShaneU

Teamxbox reviewed it and gave it a 5/10, the reviewer didn't play any of the third disc. The review has since been removed (probably due to the backlash) but you can still find it here

page 1 http://tinyurl.com/yfk6vrv

page 2 http://tinyurl.com/yhhrt35

Xluna

joe123 wrote: »

Damn it anyways. Its not so much the poor scores thats dissapointing but the sheer lack of RPGness in the game. After playing Mass effect I thought yeah that was a great game but definitely not an rpg.

I was thinking well at least ive FFXIII on the way for some wandering and exploring and going round to different towns/villages.

But no its buy your weapons at save points we dont need shops. Who needs villages and towns we have a set path for you.

I read this a few weeks back but when one of the lead creators on the FF team said "we want to make it more an interactive movie and less rpg" I was like for **** sake :mad:

Wait! Are you telling me there's no towns and villages in this game? If I wanted to watch a movie I'd put on a De Niro DVD.

Xluna

Xyo wrote: »

I just don't see the need to have a town, all you ever do in them is stock up on items and run into peoples houses and search for stuff?..

It creates/adds an athmosphere,culture and history to the games location. For me an RPG without any towns is like an RPG without any stats. Towns are one of the ingrediants that make a game an RPG imo.
Meh, I'll buy it but I'll be expecting Square to deviate farther and farther from the things that made the final fantasy series great. Still,we can always hope for a FFVII remake.

carbonkid

Id say FFVII remake is their trump card...only made if the series completely bombs out!

Retr0gamer

And when they do make it it will review badly because people will realise that it's wasn't that great and dated badly.

noodler

Retr0gamer wrote: »

And when they do make it it will review badly because people will realise that it's wasn't that great and dated badly.

Again.......................................................I think it is a poor point anyway. Nothing (99% anyway) gamewise holds the same appeal now it did 13 years ago.

Xluna

Retr0gamer wrote: »

And when they do make it it will review badly because people will realise that it's wasn't that great and dated badly.

Banned.:pac:

Retr0gamer

noodler wrote: »

Again.......................................................I think it is a poor point anyway. Nothing (99% anyway) gamewise holds the same appeal now it did 13 years ago.

Super Metroid begs to differ.

noodler

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Super Metroid begs to differ.

Its exactly as good as it was when you first played it?

Retr0gamer

Yep, in fact it could be even better since you can sequence break it and time trial it. It hasn't aged a bit.

There's plenty of games that are as good today as they always were and there's some that have dated or are a product of their time.

noodler

I think that is absolute horse**** to be perfectly frank.

I am sure you are going to go for the gameplay mechanics argument but there are other factors which matter whether you believe it or not.

If you played a game 13 years ago, there is no way you can get as much joy from it today as you did then. I love FF7 but even I admit playing it now is boring as I know the story,world,battle mechanics, secrets etc inside out.

You are just bending your argument to include a game you are incessantly advocating - you love Metroid Prime - thats why you think it hasn't aged a bit.

Stating an RPG you played to death 13 years ago doesn't quite have the same appeal to you today is a bit of a given.

ShaneU

noodler wrote: »

I think that is absolute horse**** to be perfectly frank.

I am sure you are going to go for the gameplay mechanics argument but there are other factors which matter whether you believe it or not.

If you played a game 13 years ago, there is no way you can get as much joy from it today as you did then. I love FF7 but even I admit playing it now is boring as I know the story,world,battle mechanics, secrets etc inside out.

You are just bending your argument to include a game you are incessantly advocating - you love Metroid Prime - thats why you think it hasn't aged a bit.

Stating an RPG you played to death 13 years ago doesn't quite have the same appeal to you today is a bit of a given.

This is the same guy who said Boy and his Blob had the best graphics of 2009 on ANY console. I've pretty much stopped taking anything retrogamer says seriously. He lets his nintendo fanaticism blind him from the truth.

Retr0gamer

I didn't say that. Muramasa Demon Sword had the best graphics with a Boy and his Blob or Bowsers Inside Story close behind.

Why don't you think they look good, because they are 2D? Out of all the 3D games out last year none of them come close to those 3 games. All 3 have by far the best 2D animation and art in any game since Street fighter 3 but if you want to discount them because they lack a 3rd dimension then go ahead and be ignorant.

I also didn't say Metroid Prime I said Super Metroid and ask anyone that has played and they will tell you it still is one of the greatest games ever made and hasn't aged. It's really a game that every gamer should play. I also didn't play it until over 10 years after it's initial release in 1994 and it still blew me away.

Xyo

Either way that remake is never getting made

Mr. K

Super Metroid is a very good game! Even though I'd get a FFVII remake at launch, I'm not too fussed about it. New FF games are the way forward!

On topic: I'm quite excited to play FFXIII now.

d'Oracle

Given that most game sites/Magazines are operated by Fanboy twats, I expected this to be vastly overrated.

After Final Fantasy XII I would be massively sceptical, to the point of dismissal about anyone giving over maybe a 6/10 or equivalent.
Reason Being that FF12 was boring, had an lazy story, pretty mannequin carachters with no semblance of personality, and lack of anything beyond run and kill. It was lauded by most of the "reliable" games media.

Given the problems raised by one or two honest sources I have read, (i.e. the ones who aren't still busting a nut over Vii) I will not be purchasing.
Pity that, cos I would have actually bought one of the next gen systems over this had it sqeenix even tried to fix things.

Gummy Panda

I was listening to a podcast with Jeremy Parish talking about it. After his review, I'll be buying this tomorrow.

It just seems like a really linear FF game with a great battle system. He did say it can be exhausting to play due to the lack of break in story e.g. No towns with NPCs talking crap

Retr0gamer

I'm still not getting the annoyance some people have over the linearity of the game. It never stopped FFX being spectacular and practically every JRPG is linear with a world map giving a false impression of non-linearity.

The towns thing I can understand but for me one of the biggest turn offs is a town that is too big with too mnay people to talk to. I find it slows the game right down like in Lost Odyssey. How I see the game is a further refinement of FFX. What FFX did was take the JRPG and distill it into a purer experience by focusing on what made them good, the story/atmosphere and battle system. It did this by trimming the useless and archaic parts of the JRPG formula. I can see FFXIII refining it further. Maybe it doesn't need towns either to create it's world and atmosphere. Other games have had compelling universes without the need of towns and silly NPCs.

landsleaving

I like the false impression of non linearity, for me all the slowing down and exploring adds to the game's atmosphere. I liked that the dungeon/quest parts would be broken up with quiet bits where you can just relax and take in your surroundings, maybe find out some extra backstory. Without that it's just one long dungeopn crawl occasionally broken by a cut scene. I'll probably still enjoy it, but I don't imagine it'll be anything close to it's predecessors.

We shall see tomorrow I suppose.

Memnoch

Retr0gamer wrote: »

And when they do make it it will review badly because people will realise that it's wasn't that great and dated badly.

Dated?

Let me put it to you this way. My Mrs. who never plays video games, played and FINISHED FF7 last year. It was the first game she's finished (and the only one since) and she absolutely loved it, and that was with PS1 graphics played on an emulator. How's that for dated? Now imagine if she'd been able to play it with FFXIII level graphics in full HD. She tried 8 but bored of it quite rapidly. Now she's looking forward to playing FFXIII.

I'm not for a minute saying that a remake should be just be with enhanced graphics. I think they should add some new story content especially for the "original" fans (aeris revival side quest ftw), Maybe a new town or two, another 10 hours of story based gameplay tacked on. Some modification to the materia system (materia affinity for chars to force specialisation and diversity). But I think you are severely underrating the game's class and pedigree.

GothPunk

Exactly Retr0, I don't see why people are getting their knickers in a twist before they've even played the game, especially when said knickers twister is a lover of FFX. The reason why I play Final Fantasy games is because they always try something new or different for the series with each iteration. Some changes are more welcome than others but overall I always find the games very enjoyable.

The thing that annoys me about FFX is that it tries to trick the player into thinking the game isn't linear by having the map route twist and turn like a snake (Lost Odyssey is guilty of this also). Some of the maps in FFX and FFXIII as just as linear as each other, it's just that because some of the maps in FFXIII are an actual corridor that some people have a problem with. One would think when you actually play the game you'll be too busy admiring the sweeping ships flying overhead and the battle going on all around you to worry about a linear map.

On the subject of towns, I think that White Knight Chronicles does towns well, as whilst the towns are large and there are quite a few NPCs, only some NPCs can be spoken with and they have little speech indicators above their heads with their names. There's always an objective indicator on the map to so you can skip straight to the point of interest if you like and never speak to an NPC (unless the story requires you to speak to NPCs, which it sometimes does). Towns in WKC suit the setting and the story, which can not really be said for FFXIII.

Very excited for tomorrow now, hope the bloody thing arrives in the post!

James Howlett

Memnoch wrote: »

I'm not for a minute saying that a remake should be just be with enhanced graphics. I think they should add some new story content especially for the "original" fans (aeris revival side quest ftw), Maybe a new town or two, another 10 hours of story based gameplay tacked on. Some modification to the materia system (materia affinity for chars to force specialisation and diversity). But I think you are severely underrating the game's class and pedigree.

and a decent reward for beating Ruby Weapon...

sorry to veer off topic but had to get that in.

Memnoch

The linearity doesn't bother me. I think it's a sad case of PC RPG players reviewing JRPGs. It's downright annoying in fact because it's to cater to these kind of players that Square let go of great FF traditions in the horror show that was 12.

I just want my expansive story, turn based (or similar) battle system, massive fantasy world with gorgeous graphics and brilliantly fun mini games, chocobo racing, bliztball, card games, uber cool summons and limit breaks and I'm happy

Memnoch

James Howlett wrote: »

and a decent reward for beating Ruby Weapon...

sorry to veer off topic but had to get that in.

Yeah, it was kind of redundant beating Ruby to get a golden chocobo, but I think beating Ruby and Emerald is its own reward really. There isn't anything else to do after that. That's my only complaint about 7, that at some point, it finished and there was no more content

Retr0gamer

Memnoch wrote: »

Dated?

Let me put it to you this way. My Mrs. who never plays video games, played and FINISHED FF7 last year. It was the first game she's finished (and the only one since) and she absolutely loved it, and that was with PS1 graphics played on an emulator. How's that for dated? Now imagine if she'd been able to play it with FFXIII level graphics in full HD. She tried 8 but bored of it quite rapidly. Now she's looking forward to playing FFXIII.

Of course it's dated graphically but I'd never hold that against a game. But storywise it's no better than a bad saturday morning anime series and that isn't just due to the awful translation and the battle and customisation is really simple and lacking any depth expected in a RPG. I never said FFVII is a bad game and it is a good starting point for future JRPG fans, I'm sure most people got their first taste of JRPGs from FFVII. However it's held up as the pinnacle of the genre when it's far from it since better games have come after it and before it. I think a remake will make people see that the story is just fairly silly.

Memnoch wrote: »

I'm not for a minute saying that a remake should be just be with enhanced graphics. I think they should add some new story content especially for the "original" fans (aeris revival side quest ftw), Maybe a new town or two, another 10 hours of story based gameplay tacked on. Some modification to the materia system (materia affinity for chars to force specialisation and diversity). But I think you are severely underrating the game's class and pedigree.

I'm not sure they should mess around with the game if they do remake it. I just don't trust the current Square Enix not to mess it up entirely. Anything they've added to recent remakes has been poor and added nothing to the games and changing the battle system poorly could affect the pace of the game.

Memnoch

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Of course it's dated graphically but I'd never hold that against a game. But storywise it's no better than a bad saturday morning anime series and that isn't just due to the awful translation and the battle and customisation is really simple and lacking any depth expected in a RPG. I never said FFVII is a bad game and it is a good starting point for future JRPG fans, I'm sure most people got their first taste of JRPGs from FFVII. However it's held up as the pinnacle of the genre when it's far from it since better games have come after it and before it. I think a remake will make people see that the story is just fairly silly.

I think you misunderstood my point. I wasn't saying that you were describing the game as dated because of its graphics. I got where you were coming from. My point was that GRAPHICS was the only department in which the game is dated. And that DESPITE the dated graphics, my Mrs. a mature adult of the female species who does not typically enjoy video games, dedicated nearly 60 hours of her time to play FF7.

Honestly, I'll just disagree with everything you say. I loved the story and think it's wonderfully intricate in parts and a whole lot of fun. My Mrs. loved it too. I don't care what you say about the battle system, I enjoyed it a lot, and even playing it again a couple of years ago, I found it a lot of fun. It's one of my favourite RPG battle systems. My younger cousin whose first JRPG was FFX is currently on disc 3 of 7 and is enjoying it heaps too and he's grown up on modern games. To me it IS the pinnacle of the genre. I disagree that better games have come before and since it. Maybe there have been games that more suit YOUR style of playing, that's fine. But I loved 7 then and still do and it's still my favourite game of all time.

I'm not sure they should mess around with the game if they do remake it. I just don't trust the current Square Enix not to mess it up entirely. Anything they've added to recent remakes has been poor and added nothing to the games and changing the battle system poorly could affect the pace of the game.

I'm not saying they should make wholesale changes. But a little more "side content" and some minor tweaking might not go amiss. I'm not for changing the battle system, just changing the way materia work a little so that you are forced to use more than just your 3 favourite characters.

Mr. K

Memnoch wrote: »

I think they should add some new story content especially for the "original" fans (aeris revival side quest ftw)

An Aeris revival quest just won't happen, her staying dead is pretty important! It'd also contradict Advent Children.

It'd be class though!

Xluna

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Of course it's dated graphically but I'd never hold that against a game. But storywise it's no better than a bad saturday morning anime series and that isn't just due to the awful translation and the battle and customisation is really simple and lacking any depth expected in a RPG. I never said FFVII is a bad game and it is a good starting point for future JRPG fans, I'm sure most people got their first taste of JRPGs from FFVII. However it's held up as the pinnacle of the genre when it's far from it since better games have come after it and before it. I think a remake will make people see that the story is just fairly silly.

It's weird, I usually find myself strongly agreeing with most of your opinions on video games but I just can't relate to this comment at all. I found the battle system simple but effective. I'd rather have that than whatever non turn based system we'll get in FFXIII. I absolutely loved the story. It was'nt just the story,it was the setting. It was set in dystopian metropolis...actually I think it draws some inspiration from the original Metropolis movie. I the love the love triangle between Cloud,Aeris and Tifa genuinely interested me and I was honestly upset and depressed when Aeris died, I never gave a dame about Yuna or Squall and Rinoa and Zidane and Garnet. I don't know anything about the dodgy translation but I'd love to see a current gen HD remake with extra diologue and scenes.

I really loved the story and characters. In fact it's probably the last RPG where I genuinely cared about the characters,with the exception of Suikoden series.

Memnoch

Mr. K wrote: »

An Aeris revival quest just won't happen, her staying dead is pretty important! It'd also contradict Advent Children.

It'd be class though!

Gah don't care if the mess up Advent children. I think it would be fun as a side quest to complete after you beat Sephiroth. Or I'd even go for a sequel ala X2, where the point of the whole game is to revive Aeris. And maybe cloud and co aren't the only ones out to do it, maybe someone else is also trying to revive her, a rival splinter faction of the turks or something, who want to tap into the Ancient's power for their own nefarious purposes!