FXIII meme
I finished XIII awhile ago but never got around to saying anything about it. It could be that I’m easily entertained but I really had fun playing it. Maybe I’ve been conditioned to tunnels through playing Gears or something, but the linearity was never an issue for me. I had my share of problems, and there was a lot of them, but the overall experience was enjoyable.
1.
I’m a tv hog when I’m into a game. It doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, I become the most unreasonable and selfish person ever. And I’m okay with that.
I got FFXIII over spring vacation so I would do nothing but play all day, and then my dad would come home after a long day of work and be like, “Can I play Left4Dead ;_;” and I would laugh in his face and continue on.
2. Favorite Character
At first, I thought the characters in FFXIII were complete shit, but as the story progressed, I came to adore them. The characters are heavily based on overused archetypes, but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t handled well; they managed to push passed their stereotypes and became well rounded and developed throughout the story.
As far my favorites go, I would say Hope. Which is weird because the way I wasn’t attached to any of the characters at the start of the game- I despised Hope. He spent most of the time curled into a fetal position- crying about something that nobody cared about. I spent much of my time wishing someone just kick him, it would be easy enough since he’s always curled into a ball on the ground.
Eventually though, Hope’s initial shock wore off and became a character that was fairly sympaethic. I stopped seeing him as annoying little douche, and then as a confused teenager who had enough time just being a fourteen year old boy- much less a much feared enemy of the state who‘s fate is either to die or become a monster.
It also helps that he has one of the sweetest relationships with Lightning acting as his mentor. His confrontation with Snow was, imo, an amazing scene, if a bit overdramatic. You got to see Hope finally lose himself in rage, then eventually forgive Snow and admit he was simply placing the blame because he needed to hate something, anything. It took a long time to chapter eleven but Hope finally matured into the heart of the core group, and even gives off cheesy monologues of inspiration that made you “dawww” as much as it made you roll your eyes. I truly liked how fluid his characterization was and the strong character he became.
My two other favorites were Lightning and Sazh. Lightning suffered from severe bitch-face syndrome early in on the chapters, but like Hope- their interaction changed her into someone much more likeable. And who doesn’t like a strong, confident, complex character? Sazh may have been the only one that didn’t fall into major anime archetypes that Final Fantasy often regurgitates, and was a well blended mix of comedy, weariness, and tragedy. And out of all of the characters, his story was probably the most heartbreaking.
3. Least Favorite character:
Vanille was terrible, urgh. She was like an odd mix of Aerith and Selphie- only without Aerith’s likeability and without Selphie’s plot irrelevance that allows me to forget about her existence. It was her and Snow irritated me throughout the game. But I suppose it was Vanille’s voice coupled with her extremely obnoxiously hyper attitude that made her screen time unbearable. Her voice is like the ultimate test of the Pavlov experiment- every time I see her face I cringe because I know the ensuing sexual moaning and high pitch squealing is about to ensue. She had a habit of running to the rain and ~crying into it to hide her pain~ mixed terrible, terrible dialogue. Vanille’s story did become much more interesting as the story progressed, but never quite shook her habit of acting as the insufferably dim-witted nine year old girl that is about to OD on ~sugar and rainbows.
Snow was a one note idiot; while Vanille at least said bunch of stupid shit, Snow would repeat two things, “I’m a hero” and “I LOVE SERAH” in different variations. He also has a habit of falling to his knees in despair, what’s up with that? Snow, however, did have an awesome voice actor and one or two great scenes, notably the invasion of Eden and saving Lightning and Hope.
I could have gone the safe route and picked some of the NPCs, but the creators obviously didn’t give a crap about their NPCs, so why should I? Seriously, while the main characters got lavished with development, the supporting characters suffered from neglect. Even the villain was bland. They give Rosch and Cid about five minutes of screen time, and I’m suppose to care when they die? Twice? Thank you but no. It’s a shame though, because I did feel that Barthandelus could have been interesting if someone actually put the effort into him.
3.
The dialogue was so bad, I got second hand embarrassment. The melodrama made it hard to stomach some of the most potentially powerful scenes in the game. Melodrama in of itself is okay, as long as its got the script to back it up, but it was so poorly written it made me want to skip most of the cutscenes.
I’m not going to pretend that Final Fantasy always had great writing, but this was two steps back. I know 12 wasn’t this bad, and replaying VII and IX, I didn’t think it was 13 level of awkward either. If you can invest your time in those gorgeous backdrops, please take your time and hire better writers.
4.
Like:
The character’s relationships with each other was probably my favorite part of the game, and it was something I desperately missed after playing XII. Forget the fights with Barthandelus or Psicom, almost every memorable confrontation was between the characters; Snow and Hope- Vanille and Sazh- Fang and Vanille. The character bonding remained one of the most important themes up until the finale and there are no shortage of scenes that reinforce their friendship. I’m an absolute sucker for these kinds of things, teammate fluff is just one of those things that make me feel all warm inside.
I loved the battle system in XIII. Once I got over the fact I don’t need to micromanage everything, it was one of the more engaging fight sequences in fight, and was never much of a pain to strategize out of battle. Some of the harder battles not only required good strategy but you to be quick on your toes. It was the first time I fought all the side missions (outside of 7) and liked it.
Even better was the fact you didn’t have to die after you fell in battle, you just started over. It allows you to mix around your plan to fight and let you be adventurous on who you fight. I hope this is a trend that continues, because there have been too many times I died on a random battle when I haven’t saved in hours.
Dislike:
No towns. Come on, it’s not an RPG if I can’t go into a person’s house, look through their personal belongings, and steal money from conspicuously placed treasure boxes. Every other FF had you immersed in their world, their culture, and their people. In FFXIII, you were completely alienated from it.
Although in retrospect, that actually makes sense. All Final Fantasy’s have the heroes go off on their own against the world, but it’s only in FFXIII it actually feels like it. Everytime you went to a city there was a reminder that you didn‘t belong, Sazh and Vanille getting captured- Lightining and Hope almost get executed, and the rampage in Eden. Even in Gran Pulse, there were only ruins- which though disappointing, made some haunting scenery. I forgot my initial frustration when walking into Oerba, which was gorgeous and disturbing at the same time- it had a very post apocalyptic feel and it was hard not to really feel like you were the last people left on this world.
Still, whileI understood what they were going for the lack of towns made the game less fun while playing and hopefully the next Final Fantasy’s will avoid this mistake.
5.
Favorite Eidolon:
This was so hard to pick. Mostly because they are all useless. I only summoned them to do the death trick by Vanille and farm some rare items. Cool looking, but I just wasn’t interested. Picked Shiva, because Shiva always looks amazing in each FF installment.
6. Favorite Pairing:
I don’t mind shipping, I really don’t. I find it fun in most cases, and in very few fandoms- I’m a pairing debater. But I can’t get on board with any of the pairings in this. Snow/Serah was down right creepy. Snow looks like he’s thirty and Serah looks like she’s thirteen. Vanille/Fang suffer from the same thing. In Lightning/Hope’s case- it just doesn’t look pedo-ish, it really does have the age gap. And while Vanille/Hope look like they are around the same age- in reality she’s 19 and he’s 14. Which isn’t TOO bad but still enough to make me :/
If anything, I have a soft spot for Fang/Lightning for a number of shallow reasons I don‘t even bother trying to defend. Shoujo-ai never been my thing, but hey, they actually work and look great together.
7. Sazh’s fro.
What’s with the Japanese and their obsession with afro’s. That being said, it is pretty amazing if it creates a suitable ecosystem in which a baby chocobo, which will grow to size of a horse like chicken, can live in it. More power to Sazh.
8. Mukki,
Mukki holds a place near and dear to my hearts because 1. Mukki is amazingly all man, 2. Out of all people that cockworship Cloud, he’s the only one that may have successfully hit it and 3. Reminds me of a time where Final Fantasy didn’t always take itself too seriously.
Long live Mukki, and all of which he represents.
1.
I’m a tv hog when I’m into a game. It doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, I become the most unreasonable and selfish person ever. And I’m okay with that.
I got FFXIII over spring vacation so I would do nothing but play all day, and then my dad would come home after a long day of work and be like, “Can I play Left4Dead ;_;” and I would laugh in his face and continue on.
2. Favorite Character
At first, I thought the characters in FFXIII were complete shit, but as the story progressed, I came to adore them. The characters are heavily based on overused archetypes, but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t handled well; they managed to push passed their stereotypes and became well rounded and developed throughout the story.
As far my favorites go, I would say Hope. Which is weird because the way I wasn’t attached to any of the characters at the start of the game- I despised Hope. He spent most of the time curled into a fetal position- crying about something that nobody cared about. I spent much of my time wishing someone just kick him, it would be easy enough since he’s always curled into a ball on the ground.
Eventually though, Hope’s initial shock wore off and became a character that was fairly sympaethic. I stopped seeing him as annoying little douche, and then as a confused teenager who had enough time just being a fourteen year old boy- much less a much feared enemy of the state who‘s fate is either to die or become a monster.
It also helps that he has one of the sweetest relationships with Lightning acting as his mentor. His confrontation with Snow was, imo, an amazing scene, if a bit overdramatic. You got to see Hope finally lose himself in rage, then eventually forgive Snow and admit he was simply placing the blame because he needed to hate something, anything. It took a long time to chapter eleven but Hope finally matured into the heart of the core group, and even gives off cheesy monologues of inspiration that made you “dawww” as much as it made you roll your eyes. I truly liked how fluid his characterization was and the strong character he became.
My two other favorites were Lightning and Sazh. Lightning suffered from severe bitch-face syndrome early in on the chapters, but like Hope- their interaction changed her into someone much more likeable. And who doesn’t like a strong, confident, complex character? Sazh may have been the only one that didn’t fall into major anime archetypes that Final Fantasy often regurgitates, and was a well blended mix of comedy, weariness, and tragedy. And out of all of the characters, his story was probably the most heartbreaking.
3. Least Favorite character:
Vanille was terrible, urgh. She was like an odd mix of Aerith and Selphie- only without Aerith’s likeability and without Selphie’s plot irrelevance that allows me to forget about her existence. It was her and Snow irritated me throughout the game. But I suppose it was Vanille’s voice coupled with her extremely obnoxiously hyper attitude that made her screen time unbearable. Her voice is like the ultimate test of the Pavlov experiment- every time I see her face I cringe because I know the ensuing sexual moaning and high pitch squealing is about to ensue. She had a habit of running to the rain and ~crying into it to hide her pain~ mixed terrible, terrible dialogue. Vanille’s story did become much more interesting as the story progressed, but never quite shook her habit of acting as the insufferably dim-witted nine year old girl that is about to OD on ~sugar and rainbows.
Snow was a one note idiot; while Vanille at least said bunch of stupid shit, Snow would repeat two things, “I’m a hero” and “I LOVE SERAH” in different variations. He also has a habit of falling to his knees in despair, what’s up with that? Snow, however, did have an awesome voice actor and one or two great scenes, notably the invasion of Eden and saving Lightning and Hope.
I could have gone the safe route and picked some of the NPCs, but the creators obviously didn’t give a crap about their NPCs, so why should I? Seriously, while the main characters got lavished with development, the supporting characters suffered from neglect. Even the villain was bland. They give Rosch and Cid about five minutes of screen time, and I’m suppose to care when they die? Twice? Thank you but no. It’s a shame though, because I did feel that Barthandelus could have been interesting if someone actually put the effort into him.
3.
The dialogue was so bad, I got second hand embarrassment. The melodrama made it hard to stomach some of the most potentially powerful scenes in the game. Melodrama in of itself is okay, as long as its got the script to back it up, but it was so poorly written it made me want to skip most of the cutscenes.
I’m not going to pretend that Final Fantasy always had great writing, but this was two steps back. I know 12 wasn’t this bad, and replaying VII and IX, I didn’t think it was 13 level of awkward either. If you can invest your time in those gorgeous backdrops, please take your time and hire better writers.
4.
Like:
The character’s relationships with each other was probably my favorite part of the game, and it was something I desperately missed after playing XII. Forget the fights with Barthandelus or Psicom, almost every memorable confrontation was between the characters; Snow and Hope- Vanille and Sazh- Fang and Vanille. The character bonding remained one of the most important themes up until the finale and there are no shortage of scenes that reinforce their friendship. I’m an absolute sucker for these kinds of things, teammate fluff is just one of those things that make me feel all warm inside.
I loved the battle system in XIII. Once I got over the fact I don’t need to micromanage everything, it was one of the more engaging fight sequences in fight, and was never much of a pain to strategize out of battle. Some of the harder battles not only required good strategy but you to be quick on your toes. It was the first time I fought all the side missions (outside of 7) and liked it.
Even better was the fact you didn’t have to die after you fell in battle, you just started over. It allows you to mix around your plan to fight and let you be adventurous on who you fight. I hope this is a trend that continues, because there have been too many times I died on a random battle when I haven’t saved in hours.
Dislike:
No towns. Come on, it’s not an RPG if I can’t go into a person’s house, look through their personal belongings, and steal money from conspicuously placed treasure boxes. Every other FF had you immersed in their world, their culture, and their people. In FFXIII, you were completely alienated from it.
Although in retrospect, that actually makes sense. All Final Fantasy’s have the heroes go off on their own against the world, but it’s only in FFXIII it actually feels like it. Everytime you went to a city there was a reminder that you didn‘t belong, Sazh and Vanille getting captured- Lightining and Hope almost get executed, and the rampage in Eden. Even in Gran Pulse, there were only ruins- which though disappointing, made some haunting scenery. I forgot my initial frustration when walking into Oerba, which was gorgeous and disturbing at the same time- it had a very post apocalyptic feel and it was hard not to really feel like you were the last people left on this world.
Still, whileI understood what they were going for the lack of towns made the game less fun while playing and hopefully the next Final Fantasy’s will avoid this mistake.
5.
Favorite Eidolon:
This was so hard to pick. Mostly because they are all useless. I only summoned them to do the death trick by Vanille and farm some rare items. Cool looking, but I just wasn’t interested. Picked Shiva, because Shiva always looks amazing in each FF installment.
6. Favorite Pairing:
I don’t mind shipping, I really don’t. I find it fun in most cases, and in very few fandoms- I’m a pairing debater. But I can’t get on board with any of the pairings in this. Snow/Serah was down right creepy. Snow looks like he’s thirty and Serah looks like she’s thirteen. Vanille/Fang suffer from the same thing. In Lightning/Hope’s case- it just doesn’t look pedo-ish, it really does have the age gap. And while Vanille/Hope look like they are around the same age- in reality she’s 19 and he’s 14. Which isn’t TOO bad but still enough to make me :/
If anything, I have a soft spot for Fang/Lightning for a number of shallow reasons I don‘t even bother trying to defend. Shoujo-ai never been my thing, but hey, they actually work and look great together.
7. Sazh’s fro.
What’s with the Japanese and their obsession with afro’s. That being said, it is pretty amazing if it creates a suitable ecosystem in which a baby chocobo, which will grow to size of a horse like chicken, can live in it. More power to Sazh.
8. Mukki,
Mukki holds a place near and dear to my hearts because 1. Mukki is amazingly all man, 2. Out of all people that cockworship Cloud, he’s the only one that may have successfully hit it and 3. Reminds me of a time where Final Fantasy didn’t always take itself too seriously.
Long live Mukki, and all of which he represents.