Final Fantasy 13 a Review
I know someone already wrote a review I just finished the game yesterday (which is funny since I bought it the day of its release, this may be a hint to what I'm leading up too), and I still really wanted to write my own. Call it therapy.
First let me start by saying, I'm a fangirl of the FF series. Also some may consider that I am not a fangirl, because I haven't either played or watched any before FF7. (I have played bits and pieces of 1 & 2) So I am most familiar with the later titles 8, 9, 10, 10-2, 12. I have also played through FF Tactics for the PS1 more times then I can count. Now I just completed
the main story aspect of the game, about 63 hours of gameplay. From that 63 hours subtract at least five to eight hours for leaving it on pause so many times. I have only just begun side quests, after the final boss as recommended by a friend who bought the game with the official game guide.
First lets start with the pluses, there are so few of them.
The Look - Lets face it has Square Enix really made an "ugly" FF? No. Final Fantasy 13 is no exception, its beautiful, colorful, detailed, and smooth. The characters are beautiful, awesomely conceptualized, the hair keeps getting better and better.
The Sound - The score is good, not on par with previous titles but good, for future reference I could do without the techno battle music at the start of the game, that piece really got under my skin. Sound effects are good not great. And the footsteps, annoying as shit.
Leveling up system - The Crystarium, the way you evolve your characters, the Crystarium looks very cool, like a shiny multi-teared spider web. And since gaining abilities, HP, Strength, and Magic, in multiple "jobs" is the point and it gets expensive 20,000 CP (crystal points akin to EXP) points to gain say the last Role level (the max level attainable at a given point of the gameplay) for a particular job, its take boatloads of farming. Which consists of walking up and down a hallway (usually the same one) with monsters that are worth killing for the CP they give you at the end of a battle.
The Jobs - By the 11th chapter all your party members can become a
Commando: AKA Warrior
Sentinel: AKA Defensive person you takes it for your party
Medic: AKA Healer
Synergist: AKA The buffer upper of your party (imposing good status effects)
Saboteur: AKA The bringer of badness to monsters (imposing bad status effects)
Ravager: AKA This depends if a person has a high strength and magic stat they will attack with elemental weapon attack and spell-casting, or if a person has high magic stat will attack like a Black Mage with pure casting
This one of three things I really liked, I had my main party specialize in three jobs each, and my secondary party (Which I used all of twice) were super specialists in one job. CP AKA EXP is shared and there is no limit to what a single character can be you can "specialize" in everything.
The Party AI - I only screamed at my TV afew times because of stupid shit my uncontrollable party members did or didn't do. The AI of your other two party members is pretty darn good. I don't think I died due to any lack of AI.
Aspects of the game that have pluses and minuses
The Battle System - If you love button mashing, the auto battle option is for you, depending on your party leader's job (the only person you can control) and the Paradigms (Paradigms are the set jobs your three characters have when they enter a battle) he or she will act accordingly. I don't recommend this for Boss battles they usually require thought. Usually. The battles are quick paced, sometimes I felt a little out of control because it felt you constantly had to attack or perform some action or instant fuck you up would happen.
Also unless your chars moves on their own for running up close to attack or backing off to defend or join the rest of the party(this usually leads to your whole party taking the hits, retarded imo) you can't move them at all.
Leveling up Weapons and accessories - Again I did this for my main party, and I didn't even bother with accessories, leveled up their first weapons to the next step of evolution, no higher.
Minuses
Story/Plot- If there is a worse FF story out there I haven't played it. This was boring, non-immersive, can't get involved or feel for your characters or their problems, the script absolute shit. For the first 20 hours you have no clue what the point of this game is, not a clue, except l'Cie are bad and your an l'Cie, then the game writers decide to throw heaps of vague, bullshit so called explanations which still leave you in the dark of what the whole point is.
Of course the major thing that is obvious, you must save the world. But from what, I felt like I was trapped in a really shitty Japanese version of an episode of 24, hole filled conspiracy after hole filled conspiracy. Two factions and no clear explanation of who your enemy is because everyone hates you or uses you as tools. -blank stare of disbelief- I continued to shake my head, hoping it was my own lack of understanding, but by the final cut scenes and the final boss battle, and the ending shot I was merely thankful it ended? Or rather ended happily? Did it? Someone please tell me!!!
Gameplay - Linear, oh God was it ever, I wanna find every jerk who bitched to SE about FF12 and kick the shit out of them, no sorry, wait, no lawsuits. I want to give every jerk who complained a sound tongue lashing!
Everything minus one area (following the main story plot) was a hallway, street, or narrow valley, fucking kill me it was horrible and just plain painful. No world map!!! No flying a airship or your school, not ever a freaking teleporting stone. Which leads to the next minus, which I will add here:
Travel: You don't, except the obligatory hallways previously mentioned because it is so tedious to walk backward. For example when you do go to Gran Pulse, the place with the only open area to walk around in the main storyline, just as you are to leave, you should know you will not be able to go back to Gran Pulse where the majority of any side quests/hunts are until the last hour before you beat the final boss. When those travel portals do open up there is no point in returning because your char are either maxed out or almost so, you only unlock the last of the Crystarium after the final boss is defeated then traveling is important again because cause you can go back and not have such a hard time with the Gran Pulse monsters and getting further in the hunts.
Let me say for the record again because it boggles me, your character progress is restricted until AFTER you defeat the final boss. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? -checks game box- Yep this is a Final Fantasy title, yep side questing and treasure hunting are secondary in every FF but you do it to level up, get weapons, explore the game world, find towns, interesting people to add to the detail of the story your playing through.
So if plot and gameplay aren't big enough minuses for you, how about 1000 gil phoenix downs, or needing a preemptive strike on monsters to get them a their "Stagger" point so they are easily defeated and won't kill you. Chaining attack for chain bonuses are like a hidden Stagger which redeems it. No interesting enemies, they are generic or not real. How about only controlling one character in battle, how about if your main character dies there is no way to revive them. How about there is no point in having the three other characters not in your main party, anyone I've talked to used the three chars they like the most or rather hated the least, and ignored the other three, which is also a piss off cause everyone get there own Eidolon, but that not really enough to motivate switching your party leader, in consequence I only ever brought Odin into battle.
Oh FF13 had one of the coolest cinematics in FF history. Oh wait that was the only uplifting part of my experience.
But I will after a week of brain and disappointment recovery time I will do all hunts and side missions, because I am a completionist.
So to sum up, I'd rather slaughter baby ducklings then play through the main storyline of this game again, SE owes me $73.00. And to score it 3/10.
I know someone already wrote a review I just finished the game yesterday (which is funny since I bought it the day of its release, this may be a hint to what I'm leading up too), and I still really wanted to write my own. Call it therapy.
First let me start by saying, I'm a fangirl of the FF series. Also some may consider that I am not a fangirl, because I haven't either played or watched any before FF7. (I have played bits and pieces of 1 & 2) So I am most familiar with the later titles 8, 9, 10, 10-2, 12. I have also played through FF Tactics for the PS1 more times then I can count. Now I just completed
the main story aspect of the game, about 63 hours of gameplay. From that 63 hours subtract at least five to eight hours for leaving it on pause so many times. I have only just begun side quests, after the final boss as recommended by a friend who bought the game with the official game guide.
First lets start with the pluses, there are so few of them.
The Look - Lets face it has Square Enix really made an "ugly" FF? No. Final Fantasy 13 is no exception, its beautiful, colorful, detailed, and smooth. The characters are beautiful, awesomely conceptualized, the hair keeps getting better and better.
The Sound - The score is good, not on par with previous titles but good, for future reference I could do without the techno battle music at the start of the game, that piece really got under my skin. Sound effects are good not great. And the footsteps, annoying as shit.
Leveling up system - The Crystarium, the way you evolve your characters, the Crystarium looks very cool, like a shiny multi-teared spider web. And since gaining abilities, HP, Strength, and Magic, in multiple "jobs" is the point and it gets expensive 20,000 CP (crystal points akin to EXP) points to gain say the last Role level (the max level attainable at a given point of the gameplay) for a particular job, its take boatloads of farming. Which consists of walking up and down a hallway (usually the same one) with monsters that are worth killing for the CP they give you at the end of a battle.
The Jobs - By the 11th chapter all your party members can become a
Commando: AKA Warrior
Sentinel: AKA Defensive person you takes it for your party
Medic: AKA Healer
Synergist: AKA The buffer upper of your party (imposing good status effects)
Saboteur: AKA The bringer of badness to monsters (imposing bad status effects)
Ravager: AKA This depends if a person has a high strength and magic stat they will attack with elemental weapon attack and spell-casting, or if a person has high magic stat will attack like a Black Mage with pure casting
This one of three things I really liked, I had my main party specialize in three jobs each, and my secondary party (Which I used all of twice) were super specialists in one job. CP AKA EXP is shared and there is no limit to what a single character can be you can "specialize" in everything.
The Party AI - I only screamed at my TV afew times because of stupid shit my uncontrollable party members did or didn't do. The AI of your other two party members is pretty darn good. I don't think I died due to any lack of AI.
Aspects of the game that have pluses and minuses
The Battle System - If you love button mashing, the auto battle option is for you, depending on your party leader's job (the only person you can control) and the Paradigms (Paradigms are the set jobs your three characters have when they enter a battle) he or she will act accordingly. I don't recommend this for Boss battles they usually require thought. Usually. The battles are quick paced, sometimes I felt a little out of control because it felt you constantly had to attack or perform some action or instant fuck you up would happen.
Also unless your chars moves on their own for running up close to attack or backing off to defend or join the rest of the party(this usually leads to your whole party taking the hits, retarded imo) you can't move them at all.
Leveling up Weapons and accessories - Again I did this for my main party, and I didn't even bother with accessories, leveled up their first weapons to the next step of evolution, no higher.
Minuses
Story/Plot- If there is a worse FF story out there I haven't played it. This was boring, non-immersive, can't get involved or feel for your characters or their problems, the script absolute shit. For the first 20 hours you have no clue what the point of this game is, not a clue, except l'Cie are bad and your an l'Cie, then the game writers decide to throw heaps of vague, bullshit so called explanations which still leave you in the dark of what the whole point is.
Of course the major thing that is obvious, you must save the world. But from what, I felt like I was trapped in a really shitty Japanese version of an episode of 24, hole filled conspiracy after hole filled conspiracy. Two factions and no clear explanation of who your enemy is because everyone hates you or uses you as tools. -blank stare of disbelief- I continued to shake my head, hoping it was my own lack of understanding, but by the final cut scenes and the final boss battle, and the ending shot I was merely thankful it ended? Or rather ended happily? Did it? Someone please tell me!!!
Gameplay - Linear, oh God was it ever, I wanna find every jerk who bitched to SE about FF12 and kick the shit out of them, no sorry, wait, no lawsuits. I want to give every jerk who complained a sound tongue lashing!
Everything minus one area (following the main story plot) was a hallway, street, or narrow valley, fucking kill me it was horrible and just plain painful. No world map!!! No flying a airship or your school, not ever a freaking teleporting stone. Which leads to the next minus, which I will add here:
Travel: You don't, except the obligatory hallways previously mentioned because it is so tedious to walk backward. For example when you do go to Gran Pulse, the place with the only open area to walk around in the main storyline, just as you are to leave, you should know you will not be able to go back to Gran Pulse where the majority of any side quests/hunts are until the last hour before you beat the final boss. When those travel portals do open up there is no point in returning because your char are either maxed out or almost so, you only unlock the last of the Crystarium after the final boss is defeated then traveling is important again because cause you can go back and not have such a hard time with the Gran Pulse monsters and getting further in the hunts.
Let me say for the record again because it boggles me, your character progress is restricted until AFTER you defeat the final boss. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? -checks game box- Yep this is a Final Fantasy title, yep side questing and treasure hunting are secondary in every FF but you do it to level up, get weapons, explore the game world, find towns, interesting people to add to the detail of the story your playing through.
So if plot and gameplay aren't big enough minuses for you, how about 1000 gil phoenix downs, or needing a preemptive strike on monsters to get them a their "Stagger" point so they are easily defeated and won't kill you. Chaining attack for chain bonuses are like a hidden Stagger which redeems it. No interesting enemies, they are generic or not real. How about only controlling one character in battle, how about if your main character dies there is no way to revive them. How about there is no point in having the three other characters not in your main party, anyone I've talked to used the three chars they like the most or rather hated the least, and ignored the other three, which is also a piss off cause everyone get there own Eidolon, but that not really enough to motivate switching your party leader, in consequence I only ever brought Odin into battle.
Oh FF13 had one of the coolest cinematics in FF history. Oh wait that was the only uplifting part of my experience.
But I will after a week of brain and disappointment recovery time I will do all hunts and side missions, because I am a completionist.
So to sum up, I'd rather slaughter baby ducklings then play through the main storyline of this game again, SE owes me $73.00. And to score it 3/10.
