Review: Final Fantasy XIII

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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ZippyDSMlee said:
John Funk said:
ZippyDSMlee said:
There is no "diversity" in the linearity of free form things........ I suppose you have given up the fight on "qaulity" and go with whatever the flow is as most reviewers seem to do with today's 8's are yesterdays 6s and all.....

My "preferences" are more options,more content, more quality which seems to fly like sht hitting the preverbal fan in a 180 direction and less content,options lead to more money for the questionably "diverse" game industry.

I suppose art is in the eye of the beholder and all but it dose not make twilight(or "insert pathetic media here") any better and I am not getting any younger, all I need is a cane with a golf ball on it and I will be all set!
Yes, because Super Mario Bros. 3 is clearly the most non-linear game ever made.

Your opinion is not law. Your preference does not indicate overall objective quality. A linear game is simply trying to do something with a different approach than a more free-form one. It is trying to offer a much more controlled experience.

Just because you personally do not like this, does not mean your word is law and the be-all-end-all of game quality.
So less is more?
No matter how you shake it you can not get more from less.
I'm not trying to say less is more.

I'm trying to say that more is not always better.
 

Mythrignoc

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Oct 17, 2009
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FF2 Characters- Firion, Leon, Maria, Guy
FF3 Characters- Luneth, Ingus, Arc, Refia
FF4 Characters- Cecil, Rydia, Tellah, Edward, Yang, Palom, Porom, Edge, FuSoYa
FF5 Characters- Bartz, Faris, Reina, Galuf, Krile
FF6 Characters- Terra, Locke, Celes, Edgar, Cyan, Sabin, Setzer, Shadow, Mog
FF7 Characters- Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, Yuffie, Cait Sith, Cid
FF8 Characters- Squall, Quistis, Rinoa, Selphie, Irvine, Laguna
FF9 Characters- Zidane, Dagger (Garnet), Steiner, Vivi, Amarant, Eiko, Quina, Freya
FF10 Characters- Tidus, Wakka, Yuna, Lulu, Rikku, Auron, Kimhari
FF12 Characters- Vaan, Balthier, Ashe, Basch, Penelo, Fran
FF13 Characters- Lighning, Snow, Vanille, Sazh, Yun Fang, Hope

Well, if you count Cloud, that is a total of 3 out of 71 names involving the weather. 4 if you count Terra which is just a latin name for land and a fairly common american name.

Your point about meteorological names is moot.

No offense but I believe I'm done with your reviews as this is the second instance where I've found you complaining about something that doesn't warrant frustration of any kind.


Oh, and final fantasy has ALWAYS been linear. Always.
 

ZippyDSMlee

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Sep 1, 2007
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John Funk said:
ZippyDSMlee said:
John Funk said:
ZippyDSMlee said:
There is no "diversity" in the linearity of free form things........ I suppose you have given up the fight on "qaulity" and go with whatever the flow is as most reviewers seem to do with today's 8's are yesterdays 6s and all.....

My "preferences" are more options,more content, more quality which seems to fly like sht hitting the preverbal fan in a 180 direction and less content,options lead to more money for the questionably "diverse" game industry.

I suppose art is in the eye of the beholder and all but it dose not make twilight(or "insert pathetic media here") any better and I am not getting any younger, all I need is a cane with a golf ball on it and I will be all set!
Yes, because Super Mario Bros. 3 is clearly the most non-linear game ever made.

Your opinion is not law. Your preference does not indicate overall objective quality. A linear game is simply trying to do something with a different approach than a more free-form one. It is trying to offer a much more controlled experience.

Just because you personally do not like this, does not mean your word is law and the be-all-end-all of game quality.
So less is more?
No matter how you shake it you can not get more from less.
I'm not trying to say less is more.

I'm trying to say that more is not always better.
Considering how..er....."limited" today's games are you can say that with a straight face?
Just look at the options menu and lack of control configuration and bipolar sound/video/gamplay option standards.....and thats even before you get into mechanics and implementations.

Sure you can have to much FO3 and Bioshock have to much but when you do a double take and focus on what they have to much on it generally falls to bad pacing or poorly making a generalized path through a game.


Mythrignoc said:
FF2 Characters- Firion, Leon, Maria, Guy
FF3 Characters- Luneth, Ingus, Arc, Refia
FF4 Characters- Cecil, Rydia, Tellah, Edward, Yang, Palom, Porom, Edge, FuSoYa
FF5 Characters- Bartz, Faris, Reina, Galuf, Krile
FF6 Characters- Terra, Locke, Celes, Edgar, Cyan, Sabin, Setzer, Shadow, Mog
FF7 Characters- Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, Yuffie, Cait Sith, Cid
FF8 Characters- Squall, Quistis, Rinoa, Selphie, Irvine, Laguna
FF9 Characters- Zidane, Dagger (Garnet), Steiner, Vivi, Amarant, Eiko, Quina, Freya
FF10 Characters- Tidus, Wakka, Yuna, Lulu, Rikku, Auron, Kimhari
FF12 Characters- Vaan, Balthier, Ashe, Basch, Penelo, Fran
FF13 Characters- Lighning, Snow, Vanille, Sazh, Yun Fang, Hope

Well, if you count Cloud, that is a total of 3 out of 71 names involving the weather. 4 if you count Terra which is just a latin name for land and a fairly common american name.

Your point about meteorological names is moot.

No offense but I believe I'm done with your reviews as this is the second instance where I've found you complaining about something that doesn't warrant frustration of any kind.


Oh, and final fantasy has ALWAYS been linear. Always.
Focus man focus, FFX(and FF7 town layouts) linear and FF4,6,9(even 8 is not "that" linear no worse than FF7 really) linear are 2 completely different worlds.
 

FinalHeart95

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Jun 29, 2009
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I like that you mention that linearity isn't inherently bad, something a majority of reviewers tend to forget.

To be quite honest, I enjoyed the first half of the game... once I got my paradigm shifts anyway. It's probably be really boring if I went back and played chapter 1/2 now.
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Mythrignoc said:
FF2 Characters- Firion, Leon, Maria, Guy
FF3 Characters- Luneth, Ingus, Arc, Refia
FF4 Characters- Cecil, Rydia, Tellah, Edward, Yang, Palom, Porom, Edge, FuSoYa
FF5 Characters- Bartz, Faris, Reina, Galuf, Krile
FF6 Characters- Terra, Locke, Celes, Edgar, Cyan, Sabin, Setzer, Shadow, Mog
FF7 Characters- Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, Yuffie, Cait Sith, Cid
FF8 Characters- Squall, Quistis, Rinoa, Selphie, Irvine, Laguna
FF9 Characters- Zidane, Dagger (Garnet), Steiner, Vivi, Amarant, Eiko, Quina, Freya
FF10 Characters- Tidus, Wakka, Yuna, Lulu, Rikku, Auron, Kimhari
FF12 Characters- Vaan, Balthier, Ashe, Basch, Penelo, Fran
FF13 Characters- Lighning, Snow, Vanille, Sazh, Yun Fang, Hope

Well, if you count Cloud, that is a total of 3 out of 71 names involving the weather. 4 if you count Terra which is just a latin name for land and a fairly common american name.

Your point about meteorological names is moot.

No offense but I believe I'm done with your reviews as this is the second instance where I've found you complaining about something that doesn't warrant frustration of any kind.


Oh, and final fantasy has ALWAYS been linear. Always.
Dude.

We always end our reviews on a joke of some sort. Take a joke :p

ZippyDSMlee said:
Considering how..er....."limited" today's games are you can say that with a straight face?
Just look at the options menu and lack of control configuration and bipolar sound/video/gamplay option standards.....and thats even before you get into mechanics and implementations.

Sure you can have to much FO3 and Bioshock have to much but when you do a double take and focus on what they have to much on it generally falls to bad pacing/making a generalized path through a game.
Because I don't see them as limited. I don't care about control configuration or sound options or options menus.

That's like saying that Naruto is automatically the best anime series ever because it's one of the longest. Short and sweet is just fine.
 

Mythrignoc

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Oct 17, 2009
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@Zippy,

Not one final fantasy game will let you open endedly explore the world until the end of the game.
Not one final fatnasy will allow you to choose your own background and story.
Not one will have an ending based on who you fight and who you don't fight, or which moral/ethical side you are on.

They give you the illusion of choice in some game but the end result is still the same. For instance, in 5, you could do whatever job you wanted, allowing you to have say Bartz as the mage and Krile as the warrior instead of the stereotypes, but no matter what you do, the end story and end result of the game will always be the same no matter how you play it. Exdeath, Sephiroth, Kefka, Sin, Edea, all of them will die by your hands no matter what you do in the games.


Don't kid yourself into thinking that there's degrees of linearity in games. You either do or don't have a choice, there's no maybe with something like that and while I hate black and white analysis', this is one of the few that I have yet to find any middle ground.
 

ZippyDSMlee

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Sep 1, 2007
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John Funk said:
Mythrignoc said:
FF2 Characters- Firion, Leon, Maria, Guy
FF3 Characters- Luneth, Ingus, Arc, Refia
FF4 Characters- Cecil, Rydia, Tellah, Edward, Yang, Palom, Porom, Edge, FuSoYa
FF5 Characters- Bartz, Faris, Reina, Galuf, Krile
FF6 Characters- Terra, Locke, Celes, Edgar, Cyan, Sabin, Setzer, Shadow, Mog
FF7 Characters- Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, Yuffie, Cait Sith, Cid
FF8 Characters- Squall, Quistis, Rinoa, Selphie, Irvine, Laguna
FF9 Characters- Zidane, Dagger (Garnet), Steiner, Vivi, Amarant, Eiko, Quina, Freya
FF10 Characters- Tidus, Wakka, Yuna, Lulu, Rikku, Auron, Kimhari
FF12 Characters- Vaan, Balthier, Ashe, Basch, Penelo, Fran
FF13 Characters- Lighning, Snow, Vanille, Sazh, Yun Fang, Hope

Well, if you count Cloud, that is a total of 3 out of 71 names involving the weather. 4 if you count Terra which is just a latin name for land and a fairly common american name.

Your point about meteorological names is moot.

No offense but I believe I'm done with your reviews as this is the second instance where I've found you complaining about something that doesn't warrant frustration of any kind.


Oh, and final fantasy has ALWAYS been linear. Always.
Dude.

We always end our reviews on a joke of some sort. Take a joke :p

ZippyDSMlee said:
Considering how..er....."limited" today's games are you can say that with a straight face?
Just look at the options menu and lack of control configuration and bipolar sound/video/gamplay option standards.....and thats even before you get into mechanics and implementations.

Sure you can have to much FO3 and Bioshock have to much but when you do a double take and focus on what they have to much on it generally falls to bad pacing/making a generalized path through a game.
Because I don't see them as limited. I don't care about control configuration or sound options or options menus.

That's like saying that Naruto is automatically the best anime series ever because it's one of the longest. Short and sweet is just fine.


Just like dev cycles to poo out more unpolished crap, its not so much the lack of content that crawled up my neither regions and dies but lack of polishing and working on the frakk'in mechanics...FO3 and BS both are horribly balanced and paced yet loved and worshiped like frigging twilight(uhg the dead horse of my rotting argument >< FAIl I R).

PS:One piece is longer :p

Mythrignoc said:
@Zippy,

Not one final fantasy game will let you open endedly explore the world until the end of the game.
Not one final fatnasy will allow you to choose your own background and story.
Not one will have an ending based on who you fight and who you don't fight, or which moral/ethical side you are on.

They give you the illusion of choice in some game but the end result is still the same. For instance, in 5, you could do whatever job you wanted, allowing you to have say Bartz as the mage and Krile as the warrior instead of the stereotypes, but no matter what you do, the end story and end result of the game will always be the same no matter how you play it. Exdeath, Sephiroth, Kefka, Sin, Edea, all of them will die by your hands no matter what you do in the games.


Don't kid yourself into thinking that there's degrees of linearity in games. You either do or don't have a choice, there's no maybe with something like that and while I hate black and white analysis', this is one of the few that I have yet to find any middle ground.
And IMO thats what made them great and what modern gaming is nearly incapable of doing creating the illusion of being open ended without making things horribly disconjointed. We either get linear as frak (anything bioware or capcom made)and disconjointed (anything Bethesda made and most sand box designs) because it takes to much time to build a sand box with rules.....
 

FFKonoko

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Nov 26, 2009
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The appeal is not always in just doing what you want to do, but sometimes in simply enjoying a well crafted set of gameplay mechanics, characters, story, graphics and music. You can do that in games regardless of if they are linear or not.
Personally, I see no greater illusion of being open ended in the older games than the newer ones. I still loved those older games.
 

ZippyDSMlee

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Sep 1, 2007
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FFKonoko said:
The appeal is not always in just doing what you want to do, but sometimes in simply enjoying a well crafted set of gameplay mechanics, characters, story, graphics and music. You can do that in games regardless of if they are linear or not.
Personally, I see no greater illusion of being open ended in the older games than the newer ones. I still loved those older games.
I dunno the more constricted and contrived it feels the more I just turn off and hate it, Loved FF4,FF6 FF5 was k for what it was same for FF7,FF8 was messy but had neat sub plots, FF9 was pure fun,FFX was messy I enjoyed blitz ball more than the game itself, FF12 is very messy and FF13 is very very messy on the rails hell Dragon age is as messy as FF12 but with problems in other areas...... blah I over analyze games(and movies) because I want them to be the best they can be not cheap thrill fodder........*sigh*
 

crazyjay321

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Tonimata said:
...Why does the combat system sound A LOT like the one from Tales of Symphonia from what I understood there??

Edit: How long exactly is the game? I'm going to run out of Xbox Live soon, and I want to make sure my money is well invested.
Dude the combat is no way near as good as the tales series. All you have to do to win(also there is no penalty for losing a fight at all) is change the paradigm's and press auto battle.

I'm hooked on the game but do not know why I am, I think it's the story and character's.
 

feeqmatic

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Jun 19, 2009
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The game is disappointing in my opinion. I put it down and will probably not pick it up until i have more time on my hands and have played everything else i want to play. The idea of playing in a straight line for 30 hours to get to the rpg part of the game just seems retarded. If it were 10 hours, maybe. Basically they expect the combat and story to carry the game for 30 hours, and not even God of war, Ninja Gaiden, or any other action orriented game could carry a game for 30 hours by itself. I got to chapter 6 realized what the game was asking of me then put bayonetta in cause if im going to play a flashy linear game it might as well have exciting combat.

I feel slightly betrayed as a fan. They did the same thing Mass Effect did and took the RPG out of the game except they did it waaaaay worse with far worse results.
 

A Weary Exile

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I never noticed the "Weather-named" characters before. Cloud, Squall, Lightning...strange.

I'm still on the fence about whether I'm going to buy FFXIII, I'm going to borrow it from my friend first and see if I like it.
 

Nickymonkey

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I have the game, its like having eddie murphy as a character so fun!
Plus its 10X more fun because you can make fun of the characters
and its like playing a MOVIE!!!
 

rickthetrick

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This game fails due to it having zero replay value. I can not see myself having an urge to plow through 30 hours of "training wheels" just to get to semblance of a game for the second time. If you need me I'll be over here playing Dragon Age again.
 

Wounded Melody

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FFVI is pretty non linear in the World of Ruin IMO, you can pick up or choose to leave behind several characters and it affects the ending.
I watched the FF13 playthrough (Japanese) on Youtube and now will be watching the English version. Snow gets on my nerves, but I like the rest of the cast. I like that you can avoid battles but the loss of towns makes me sad. It was always cool to look around and see if something was hidden or if you'd meet dancing girls or get turned into a pig XD
One thing--what's the point of getting turned into crystal if you succeed at your focus? That's a pretty crappy reward...
 

demouse

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lol, only game that has ever made me seriously wish i had a console... just for the last bit

RUN!!

...

I MEANT AWAY!!!
 

kawaiiamethist

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I finished the 'story' last night.

The final bosses were a total joke, and I found Barthandulus got progressively easier if you compare the three battles (the first was an absolute nightmare and the hardest thing I did in the game).

Story is so important to me, so it was frustrating to see them cutting corners on side characters and villains. They were there, the they were gone. They only had walk on scenes. I didn't give a rats about Cid, so when the two you-know-what events happened with him, it didn't faze me in any way.

I also really disliked the use of datalogues to give the audience important information. So lazy and unimaginative. They didn't even try to offer context, they just gave you notes to read.

Wounded Melody said:
I watched the FF13 playthrough (Japanese) on Youtube and now will be watching the English version. Snow gets on my nerves, but I like the rest of the cast. I like that you can avoid battles but the loss of towns makes me sad. It was always cool to look around and see if something was hidden or if you'd meet dancing girls or get turned into a pig XD
One thing--what's the point of getting turned into crystal if you succeed at your focus? That's a pretty crappy reward...
I hated Snow too, right to the bitter end.

Turning to crystal beats the alternative. Would you rather become a crystal or a brainless beast?

Please put important events under a spoiler tag.

-Mod
 

MisterColeman

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This is the best FFXIII review I have ever read, but that mostly just means that we both think the same thing, so this might actually be bad for you, I'm not usually the person you want to think the same as, or so I've been told.