Some thoughts on FFXIII

[crowley]

Today's Penny Arcade pretty much sums it up. I won't go so far as to say I hate it, but I'm pretty pissed that I'm into disk 2 (maybe 20 hours in and it still hasn't opened up yet. I'm getting so tired of the dungeon slogging that I'm dodging enemies

Comments

[fireriven]

Eeep. I'm sorry to hear you're not enjoying it. This is the most linear of the FF games I've encountered. I'm at the beginning of Chapter 10 now and there have been no mini-games... well, okay, one "mini-game" and it really wasn't a game, but a series of guided moves. Actually, "a series of guided moves" can pretty much summarize the gaming experience of FFXIII so far.

But I do like it. I dig the music and the character designs and I find the story fascinating and I've come to like all the characters to varying degrees, except for Snow who I only like for the theme music. I love the feel of the settings, even if I still don't quite understand how Cocoon and Pulse fit together. And I am finding the combat system to be a pleasant juggling experience.

I just wish there were more cause to use the summons, yo. And, y'know, more summons to go around.

[khayman]

Finished it, now I'm going back and doing all the little side quests that show up on disc 3. I loved it, and I'm okay with the linearity. Then again, while the story is a bit hard to follow at times, it does touch on something visceral deep inside me which will always be an unabashed Final Fantasy fanboy.

[crowley]

See, I don't want side quests that don't show up until disc 3. I want them now and I don't the game to hold my hand for more than maybe a couple of hours. Maybe my opinion will change once I beat the game, but I think this is probably the weakest of the series.

[khayman]

I think it's a different approach. I always felt that the whole "open world" thing didn't really work for the storyline they were trying to create. Instead you ended up running all over the place looking for the next cutscene/boss fight. So it was linear, in the guise of being open-world. Some of them had side quests much earlier on (X, X-2, XII) and I think that I can agree with you that they should've put more content like that earlier in the game.

[crowley]

I've play almost all the FF games and this one seems to be the most restrictive. I consider the world building/exploring to be one of the strong points of the series and with 13 they've seemingly tossed that out the window in favor of being soul-crushingly linear.

To me, the character design isn't anything new; Lightning is Cloud + Squall + Ashe's sense of style. Sazh is Barrett (cause he's black and old) + Irvine + Balthier. Vanille is the worst parts of Yuffie + Selphie + Penelo. Which is pretty typical for FF games but come on. All of this could (maybe) be forgiven if the story was at all interesting, compelling or understandable. I don't want to read shit in the Datalog, I just want to play and know what the hell's going on.

And don't even get me started on the battle system.