Final Fantasy XIII

[Dark_Fairy]

Alright, thanks everyone. I appreciate the in-depth descriptions of the game. ^_^

I decided after reading what everyone has said it may not be worth $60. I'll wait until it's cheaper and then try it, or borrow it from my friend who has it. I don't want to waste money on something I may not like. It's hard to tell at this point if I'll like it or not. Some things Nobi said made me want to try it, but some things Lunar3 said makes me not want to. I have mixed feelings about it now. I may get it in the future, but right now I'll wait.

[Lunar3coming]

The characters (while very nice looking thanks to Tetsuya Nomura) are a total drag and everything about them is cliche.

Nomura's character designs are anything but nice. Outlandish and at the same time generic, I think they could be best described as annoying. He tones down his costumes for FF at least (I don't recall any FF characters having more zippers than articles of clothing), but his faces are all annoyingly cherubic, unless they're annoyingly gruff. Especially since FFX. It's like playing an RPG full of those irritating little religious figurines that people inexplicably collect. With a couple of cheap action figures mixed in.

How I'd love to see Amano do the character designs again. Or really, anyone but Nomura.

I love Amano too. Unfortunately, his design style is for the most part disproportionate and the characters in game rarely reflect what he originally draws...except maybe the the enemies for the first 3 final fantasy games.

[Lunar3coming]

Alright, thanks everyone. I appreciate the in-depth descriptions of the game. ^_^

I decided after reading what everyone has said it may not be worth $60. I'll wait until it's cheaper and then try it, or borrow it from my friend who has it. I don't want to waste money on something I may not like. It's hard to tell at this point if I'll like it or not. Some things Nobi said made me want to try it, but some things Lunar3 said makes me not want to. I have mixed feelings about it now. I may get it in the future, but right now I'll wait.

I think this is the right choice. I was a fool to buy this game outright like that. If I hadn't gotten rid of the game at a used game shop to see if I could at least recoup a portion of the costs, I seriously would have sent you the game at no cost. Basically after I finished it, the only that Final Fantasy XIII was worth using for is maybe a coaster for a coffee mug or a frisbee...

I really loved Squaresoft and Enix when they were separate companies back in the old days but they have really been sucking it up royally this generation... There's only been like a few good games I've played coming out of them since they merged. Valkyrie Profile 2 was good and Front Mission 5 was awesome. Everything else has been pretty mediocre. Kingdom Hearts is just getting out of control in weirdness, too... I loved the first game, the second game was pretty good but the DS and PSP games in the series are atrocious...

[Parn]

It's kind of interesting that you dislike the battle system. I find it to be absolutely fantastic, one of the stronger points of the game.

Definitely don't care for the art direction though. Never have been a fan of Nomura's work.

[Silver Phoenix]

The lack of leveling up normally also hinders your growth, and you pretty much have to farm CP (Crystarium Points) in order to gain new abilities, HP, spells, etc. It's much like the Sphere Grid from FFX in that sense, but if you max out your current Crystarium Stage you have to wait for another tier to unlock after a major boss battle.

It's also very hard to get Gil in this game, and you can't buy much of anything until you start selling components you acquire during battles, treasure spheres, etc. The unfortunate part is that you don't want to sell your components because you need a ton of them to level up your weapons and accessories. Some of the music is pure crap in the game, and then some is rather good or ethereal.

As for character segment splitting, Final Fantasy VI did a much better job and was just more enjoyable overall. I would love a remake of that game far more than Final Fantasy VII.

[Alunissage]

The characters do definitely improve. At first I thought Vanille was at least as annoying as Rikku, but after more of her story is shown she becomes more likeable. I thought the personalities and voices were done really well. We haven't finished it yet but we're nearly to the end. The interactions between the characters have been interesting. I do wish we could actually interact with NPCs rather than just overhear their comments and conversation, though.

Music has been interesting. Not used to hearing vocal music as part of general map exploration. As I understand it the vocal stuff is different from what was in the Japanese release, so my husband's been really curious to see what the latter is like.

Battle system is pretty interesting. Of course, I'm not the one playing -- I knit or spin while my husband plays -- so I'm not having to react, but he likes it too. Aside from a few hiccups in the AI, like the non-leading characters not casting Esuna enough because they always prioritize healing, it's actually somewhat logical for once. Having schemes of roles for the battle members who then act within these roles makes them much more like a team than a traditional turn-based battle system would, because those roles truly work together. It's a lot easier to imagine that as a model of real-world interaction than each one doing their own thing. It's also, as Nobi mentions, nice to be able to retry battles immediately and thereby try different strategies.

Jenner, Lightning does do pretty well as a lead character. She doesn't let the guy who sees himself as a hero take over, even if she apologizes to him too much. Actually, although all of the characters have their own stories and development, I'd say it's weighted a bit toward the females overall. That could have to do with my

It did take me a bit to get into the game, and so I missed a few key scenes since I told my husband to go ahead and play without me. But since there's a datalog that sums up all of the scenes and sometimes adds information that wasn't clear from the dialogue, I got the gist. That's been a nice feature.

The level system is kind of interesting, if at times (like where we are) a little frustrating. Each character accumulates points to spend toward gaining different stat bonuses and learning spells or intrinsic skills for their various battle roles, rather than levelling up via experience points. This is done by travelling from node to node along preset pathways (Euler graphs!), but of course not all of it is available at once. More of the graph is unlocked after various story points and events. This means that you can max out the area available to you and after that there isn't much benefit to grinding until more of it is unlocked. Near the end, as we currently are, that's a bit annoying because the battles are tough and there isn't much to do about it. Except levelling up weapons, which my husband refuses to do because once you use something up you don't have it any more...

[Vyse of Arcadia]

The characters (while very nice looking thanks to Tetsuya Nomura) are a total drag and everything about them is cliche.

Nomura's character designs are anything but nice. Outlandish and at the same time generic, I think they could be best described as annoying. He tones down his costumes for FF at least (I don't recall any FF characters having more zippers than articles of clothing), but his faces are all annoyingly cherubic, unless they're annoyingly gruff. Especially since FFX. It's like playing an RPG full of those irritating little religious figurines that people inexplicably collect. With a couple of cheap action figures mixed in.

How I'd love to see Amano do the character designs again. Or really, anyone but Nomura.

I love Amano too. Unfortunately, his design style is for the most part disproportionate and the characters in game rarely reflect what he originally draws...except maybe the the enemies for the first 3 final fantasy games.

I'd rather have poor reflections of Amano's designs than accurate reflections of Nomura's. Even at their most dissimilar, Amano's characters were better by virtue of not being cherubs or grumpy.

Besides, can you imagine what Amano's art would look like now that we have the technological capabilities to accurately represent it on an HD console? Maybe with something similar to to Valkyria Chronicles' graphics engine. I may start drooling.

[Alunissage]

I don't keep track of who does what character design. But I really loved how some of the details were done in this game. The tough mom looked old enough to be a mom, reasonably. With enough time to study her outfit I could knit a replica; it was that detailed and realistic. Sazs's face, too, was well done. I do wonder at the rather peach-orange tint of the lips of the females, though.

I've gotten the impression that Amano's art style tends more toward the fantastical and ornate. I don't see that style working so well in this game with its down-to-earth characters.

[localflick]

Amano's characters work well for 2D but they would look ridiculous in 3D especially when everything around them is as realistic looking as the environments in FFXIII.

If it was something like Hotel Dusk:Room 215 for DS, or a 2D DS title, or really any style where hand drawings would work well Amano would be perfect.

At first I thought Vanille was at least as annoying as Rikku, but after more of her story is shown she becomes more likeable.

Definitely. There was a review that described Vanille as what would happen if Crocodile Dundee and Smurfette had a child.

The over-the-top cutesiness is what bothers me, including things like the way she runs and her voice. I like the other main characters though.

[Final Night]

I'll openly say that I was skeptical of the game based on what I was hearing ahead of time. When you start to pile all of that stuff up (no towns, no MP, you only control one character, etc. etc. etc.) it starts to sound like too far of a departure.

However, I'm really enjoying it. At first I also disliked having to paradigm shift just to heal (referring to when you've only got two characters in your party), but after awhile it's pretty satisfying to hit a fast paradigm shift to heal/buff your party and then shift back and whoop up on your enemy without losing any ground.

The battle systm is very fast paced. Actually th battles play out like what I always imagined a traditional FF battle playing out if it were done movie style.

Vanille was annoying at first, but I've never liked the female character in that role (starting with Yuffie), but as her story is revealed it's very interesting. Tonight I noticed that I was really getting attached to these characters (except Fang. Not sure why I don't like her).

I just finished chapter 8 and it was tough not to keep playing. It's a great game. If your skeptical, then I'd say rent it, but if you know you'll probably end up buying it anyway I'd say just bite the bullet and get it.

[Kaiya-Sky]

according to http://finalfantasyversusxiii.net/
it has sold over 1 million copies in North America. Only if Lunar could sell the many.

I hear both good and bad things about it, mostly bad, i dont know what to think about this game. Just from what i hear i dont think i would like it, with compairison to X, and the no Towns, I love running around and exploring towns, also no Moogles, whats next no Chocobos and no Cid, why dont they just take the Fantasy out of Final Fantasy, and change it something else.
But im not making my final judment on this game untill i play it for my self, when it is cheap and i have a ps3, so in a year or so.....

also did anyone else here about how there is talks already for a FFXIII-2?
its also on that site

[brightshield]

I beat the game. It's good, but far from amazing. I'd say that 6, 7, 9, 10, and Tactics are far better games. This one is more at the level of 4, 5, or 8. Still, it's lightyears beyond 1, 2, 3, 11, or 12.

If you're short on cash, there are definitely better games that came out recently though. Heavy Rain has a much better story. God of War 3 is the most impressive looking game I've ever played, and the boss fights define epic. Mass Effect 2 was also the better and more well rounded RPG. I'd still say that is one of the top 5 games to come out this year(at least so far), but definitely not the best. Heavy Rain > God of War 3 > Mass Effect 2 > Final Fantasy XIII > Dante's Inferno, I didn't include Lunar since it's a remake rather than a new game.

[Audric]

This game is amazing, cept when im in a party that doesnt involve lightning or snow =p

[Jenner]

Jenner, Lightning does do pretty well as a lead character. She doesn't let the guy who sees himself as a hero take over, even if she apologizes to him too much. Actually, although all of the characters have their own stories and development, I'd say it's weighted a bit toward the females overall. That could have to do with my

Played it a lil' bit at a friend's house. Liking Lightning so far, do not like that she'll start apologizing later. The guy I borrowed the game from called her a "-Borgan-" and I gave him a firm lecturing about how standing up to a man and slapping sense into him is not -Borgan-. One of my main complaints in the later FF games is that they are very sparing with the plot and then feed it to you in one big huge glob and then go back to trickling it and that, since 10, character development has just magically happened, spontaneously, without any spoken dialog or events coinciding to the associated personality shift. FF13 seems to avoid this by doing something ELSE I have a gripe with (one of my major gripes with DA:O in fact) putting the plot in CODEXes.

While I like being able to look back and remind myself of everything that's happened as the Codexes update (and yes, that was another complaint of mine, "Why do I want to save the world again? I had a paper due and didn't play for three weeks...") but still don't seem to convey any plot in the game. (Or maybe I'm just missing it?) Characters interaction, interaction seemed forced, have a hard time feeling for Snow and Sarah. Also, not really having any emotional connection to the game or the quest. Reminds me of a D&D campaign where you're just put on the rails.

I'll see if I can play it a bit more... so far. I mean, I like Lightning... but I'm still blah about this game.

FFIX spoiled me.

This game is amazing, cept when im in a party that doesnt involve lightning or snow =p

WHO BRINGS THEIR FISTS TO A GUNFIGHT, SERIOUSLY.

[makingthingsup]

I'm picking this up, I tried the game at the Sony store the other day and I thought it was pretty fun.

[makingthingsup]

Picked this game up couple days ago, I only played for a little bit. I really like the fighting style, I'm not so sure about the story yet, some of the enemies look like storm troopers. The chocobo in the fro is cute.

[Jenner]

Played it s'more. At this point, I really want Lightning to get with Sazh they have a good mutual foundation going on. But I know she's going to replacement goldfish Sarah with Snow because Interracial Marriage Is Bad and that just ragequits me.

So I'm done with FF13, in my version. Lightning and Sazh fly off in the airship together with Hope and Vanille as their surrogate kids to fight crime In Space.

[Alunissage]

Jenner, (spoiler about character relationships, kinda)

 No new romantic relationships form during the game.

[Monde Luna]

Bringing back the dead... Did anyone else feel like Lightning really wasn't the main character? By the time I played through the whole game it just felt like the game was more about  Vanille and Fang and their interactions with everyone on Cocoon.

[Alunissage]

Yeah, I'd agree with that. But really, there's no particular reason why a game has to have a single main character, or even for the most playable character to be the one the story revolves around. I rather felt that way with FF12, where Vaan may appear to be the protagonist but the story is really all about Ashe. For that matter, most of Eternal Blue is the same way.

Regarding FF13,  Lightning's mission and actions are very straightforward once all the flashbacks with her are done. Likewise with Snow and Hope -- no particular twists with the latter, especially. Sazs is in the same situation as Snow and Lightning, just later in the game. Fang and Vanille's motivations and actions remain obscure for much longer; we never know for sure what Fang especially has in mind. They have no clear-cut goal that's made explicit, unlike the rest, who want to preserve their home and get their loved ones back. Once the Big Plan of the Fal'cie is shown, the only story left as far as the characters are concerned is with Fang and Vanille since there's nothing more to reveal about anyone else's motivations.