FFXIII - Last impression (spoilers obviously)

carbonkid

landsleaving wrote: »

The promised land is a lie. I was like you once, young, naive, innocent. Now I'm cold and callous, broken by the lie that is Final Fantasy XIII.

Seriously though, it's not that bad, just spend ages in pulse, don't move on for a good while and enjoy the freedom, I didn't realise but you know better

Thanks for the heads up!!!

imitation

I found it quite the opposite of the OP. At the start the fact you dont know whats going on makes it alot more interesting, its not just a case of the super friends off to fight some impossible odds, you know of course it will end up like that, but at the start everybody is pretty much out for themselves. The fact they are also effectively doomed either way is pretty interested. The scope for story development seems huge with NORA and the like.

The plot comes thick and fast up as far as gran pulse, I found it exhausting in many ways, as I like to blast through games that I enjoy in a couple of evenings, but considering it takes 25 hours to get that far I was wrecked. The gameplay is quite dull up until that point, and its pretty unforgivable really, the training wheels should be long gone 2 hours in, never mind 20 hours. The story, zones and visuals kept me interested though. There is some good character/backstory development.

The problem for me comes after gran pulse, it really seems to me that they realised they had bitten off more than they could chew and that they needed to push the game out. The amount of actualy story development drops to nil on gran pulse, I was expecting huge amounts of backstory on the falcie, oebra, fang & vanille. Instead it feels like a bit of a spacer storywise compared to the first half. At least the gameplay develops to keep it interesting. The fal`cie are the ultimate antagonist in my books, and a very good one at that, they seems like benefactors, but they are really out for there own ends. Its another element of the game that would have really used more development

I dont think towns would have helped (I`m not really a fan of them anyway, there usualy just shops and some flavour text anyway).

Once you get to eden the trend continues, all you really get is bartandelous goading you, and a quick clip of snows friends who are never to be seen again.

The ending was also kind of disappointing, I was left confused by the fact they were turned into cieth and then back again, as well as the fact they decide to kill orphan after all there talk of protecting it. If it was fleshed out it would be fine.

I liked the fact that fang and vanille saved them in the end, but you left wanting for more of an explanation, like how did they crack cocoon, how did they get turned into l`cie, why did they fail the first time (Something about the godess ?). What about the rest of pulse ? Once again I get the impression that it was just unfinished.

The final ending is really ruined by the Leona Lewis soundtrack, it just doesnt fit in, and its made even more horrible by the fact the rest of the game has a brilliant (one of the best I have heard so far IMO) orchestral soundtrack. The fact the cocoon characters get turned back feels very dues ex machina, much like the fact they became cieth. I`m sure it has something to do with the maker but it has zero explanation. I`m all for an enigmatic ending if A. there is going to be sequel B. There are decent clues to what is actually happening dropped. Niether looks to be the case here

Finally there were plenty of cringeworthy things that would drive me mad on a second playthrough (which makes it unlikely to happen). Mainly the transformer eidolians, which tend to look pretty stupid and feel wrong, Vanilles voice acting (Shes actually a good sombre narrator, but when shes fighting or being chirpy shes just annoying). Auto battle was also pretty silly.

Aurongroove

Am I the only person who though this was a good game then?

I think sometimes people build up Final Fantasies too much, they are just games, if it was released by an unknown game label and you bought it second hand what would you have thought of it?

I was expecting not to like it based on reviews and trailers, but having played it I enjoyed it more then 12, and almost as much and 10 and the others. easily worth, not an Orgasmic "A+" but a very, very clinical, exciting and enjoyable "A"

for me the pros are:

excellent graphics,
excellent speed based ATB system
excellent music
streamlined rpg elements with no boring extra flab for the sake of tradition
no grinding, or sense of dungeon filler, the dungeons were short sharp shocks rather then tests of patience.

no opportunity to over power your players,

Great overarching story which deals with fate, indecision and hope


And the Cons:

Story told very badly by writers/voice actors

Summons under powered AGAIN
(though this time not as severely and in 12, there's no point carefully designing these beautiful killing [and in this case transforming] machines, depicted in the story as almost demi-god in power, if you end up programming them to be beautiful "minor wounding, waste-of-time machines + a free heal,) I said earlier that they got this just right, but I was going on when you get Odin and Shiva first, after which they slowly and progressively begin to weaken, like 12 only not as severe, they just end up going from good to "sorta OK", but only if you want to spend 3 TP and have a bit of craic with the enemy) where as in 12 they go from "holding their own" to utter, utter wastes of time, and a good way to empty your MP bar and get a game over.

Side plots are few, ill conceived and poorly told
(I felt no pity or care for Dajh, Snow's crew, Hope's Mom or Cid because they spends less time on screen then a B list actor with diarrhea)

Manual, Datalog and In-game help and info is very poor when compared to FF8, FF12 or the KH diaries. player is expected to search online or buy a game-guide to find out specifics about the fighting system, EXP for item upgrade etc.

But in my mind the pro's far outweigh the cons, if I want to enjoy the Eidolons I just battle easy opponents, or teach Synergist and buff them. And although the save points and Cie'th stones are a cold hearted replacment for towns are villages, but I don't really mind them and they're worth suffering for the exercise in minimalism and streamlining the game was going for, which over all I was very impressed with.

Sorry for the long post, but I see other people have written entire Novels and so I decided the lenght of this post wouldn't look to luxurious in comparison.

Xluna

Great game my arse!:cool: I got bored,and disillusioned with it,so I started to play FFVII on the PSP. So....much....better.....