Ok i have to first say im sick of all the hate going out towards this game from reviewer's and some of the community. "i want towns blar blar".

Sure, its not got what people expected from an rpg. but so what. the game is still as epic as every other final fantasy. it still keeps to its roots. and it still provides hour's and hour's of impossably fun gameplay

People are saying it's to "linear" have we really forgotton about ff1-6 and 8? and even 10 ( 10 just had a phew extra spots in towns u could enter ), have we forgotton how linear these all were. its final fantasy's heart that is a linear game with a great story

Ok sorry for my ramble. onto my impression's


Impression's of FFXIII - from nankura 13 hours of gameplay

General - Generally i have found the game to be enjoyable. and quite entertaining, i think the linear play for the first 6 hours is very necessary to get familiar with the game and the tutorials needed to get through. it introduces the new "crystalis" system with ease and pleasing delight

Graphics - The graphic's were stunning, every area was highly detailed and eye candy never before seen in any rpg on the console's. it's cutscene's are beautifull. and the fact that you can zoom in during the run around sections and still look HD/3D, is amazing

Gameplay/Battlesystem's - The battlesystem is without word's to describe how innovative and immersing this battlesystem truely is. its a little limited but when has ff not been. it brings to light a whole new style of gameplay. along with the old style that everyone loves, and keeps your interested and having fun almost the entire game

Story - What can i say. ive cried a phew time's. i havnt cried since Aerith died, ( well abit in ff10. the kiss was so cute and the ending was heart wrenching ) but yea. it was beautiful and everything you can expect from the amazing vision's of square-enix

Overall - I get that people didnt get everything they wanted in ff13. but even with the missing detail's, its still an amazing, epic storylined game that breaks your heart, makes you smile, and makes you laugh, it has it all. and thankgod its finally here.

The Music - just unbelievable how people can even say leona lewis is bad. the song "My hands" just fit's the theme so perfectly and the game. and many other song's. and its general gameplay music is so fitting its hard not to notice. the music is great, yea sure its not tune's done in the past, BECAUSE THEYVE BEEN DONE, welcome to the new age. and stop having a cry honestly

Thankyou square-enix

Ok i have to first say im sick of all the hate going out towards this game from reviewer's and some of the community. "i want towns blar blar".

Sure, its not got what people expected from an rpg. but so what. - That's exactly why people are complaining, they expected towns and stuff and junk. the game is still as epic as every other final fantasy. it still keeps to its roots. - Roots would be like the early NES FF games. Only root we have are crystals and names of some summons, chocobos and Cid. and it still provides hour's and hour's of impossably fun gameplay - Dungeon, cut scene, dungeon, cut scene, dungeon, cut scene. It's very repetitive for the first 9 chapters.

People are saying it's to "linear" have we really forgotton about ff1-6 and 8? and even 10 ( 10 just had a phew extra spots in towns u could enter ), have we forgotton how linear these all were. its final fantasy's heart that is a linear game with a great story - Have you played any of those games? FFX is the only "linear" game of them all. XIII is even more linear.

Ok sorry for my ramble. onto my impression's


Impression's of FFXIII - from nankura 13 hours of gameplay

General - Generally i have found the game to be enjoyable. and quite entertaining, i think the linear play for the first 6 hours is very necessary to get familiar with the game and the tutorials needed to get through. it introduces the new "crystalis" system with ease and pleasing delight

Graphics - The graphic's were stunning, every area was highly detailed and eye candy never before seen in any rpg on the console's. it's cutscene's are beautifull. and the fact that you can zoom in during the run around sections and still look HD/3D, is amazing

Gameplay/Battlesystem's - The battlesystem is without word's to describe how innovative and immersing this battlesystem truely is. its a little limited but when has ff not been. it brings to light a whole new style of gameplay. along with the old style that everyone loves, and keeps your interested and having fun almost the entire game

Story - What can i say. ive cried a phew time's. i havnt cried since Aerith died, ( well abit in ff10. the kiss was so cute and the ending was heart wrenching ) but yea. it was beautiful and everything you can expect from the amazing vision's of square-enix

Overall - I get that people didnt get everything they wanted in ff13. but even with the missing detail's, its still an amazing, epic storylined game that breaks your heart, makes you smile, and makes you laugh, it has it all. and thankgod its finally here.

The Music - just unbelievable how people can even say leona lewis is bad. the song "My hands" just fit's the theme so perfectly and the game. and many other song's. and its general gameplay music is so fitting its hard not to notice. the music is great, yea sure its not tune's done in the past, BECAUSE THEYVE BEEN DONE, welcome to the new age. and stop having a cry honestly

Thankyou square-enix


My fav part of FFXIII is Lightning. I donno why, I just really like her.

Not to mention spelling and grammar: THAT starts with the thread title.

Don't get me wrong, I like FFXIII, it's just far from being my favorite, but if I had to rate my fav to least fav it would go:

FFVI
FFTactics
FFXII
FFIX
FFVII
FFXI
FFV
FFVIII
FFXIII
FFX
FFIV
FFII
FF
FFIII

FF 1, 2, 3 and 4 have such low ratings because they really shouldn't be on the list. I haven't play through a lot of those games to give a fair rating. But I've played through enough to know how I kind of feel.





btw, there's a helghast in my FFXIII

FFVI was linear? That's weird, because I seem to recall most locales in it, as well as every other FF, were optional. I - III forced you to go to most places on the world map, but every one thereafter offered many that were entirely optional for you, the player, to visit. Calling the other games linear is pure idiocy. FFX is linear, because you can't once deviate from your path. Even if you do, you're right back on it again after maybe grabbing a chest or something. Linear isn't always a bad thing, but just because a game's story forces you to visit certain places in order for things to progress, doesn't make the game linear. Linear is moving from point A to point B with little to no deviation.

I'm still not convinced that this game is worth buying. I'll try it out, but unless it doesn't turn out to just be another pretty face over bad gameplay, I'm never touching it again.

Also . . .

:grammar:

The Music - just unbelievable how people can even say leona lewis is bad. the song "My hands" just fit's the theme so perfectly and the game. and many other song's. and its general gameplay music is so fitting its hard not to notice. the music is great, yea sure its not tune's done in the past, BECAUSE THEYVE BEEN DONE, welcome to the new age. and stop having a cry honestly


Please...

I agree with most of what you have said.. But the music in this game is far off great. Do not get me wrong though, there is possibly three or four good pieces of music. However in the older FF games you will find more like 30 or 40 good pieces of music per title. The fact that Leona Lewis did a song does not annoy me in the slightest. It definately fits with the story and what is happening at the time.

But even the good music in this game could have been better. The only piece of music that is actually great and reminds me of what the music should be like, is "Final Fatasy 13 The Promise". Which is the piece playing in the background when you choose to load a game or start a new game.. Any other song in the game that sounds remarkable is usually just a remix of this one.

For such an epic title it should have had better music

I am almost through chapter 11 now. They give you that good tease of the open world before you go back to the grind of the linear levels. All the same, I've found myself very compelled to keep playing. The story's good, though at this point in the game it's kinda hit a lull for that, just developing some rather minor things.

I find the paradigm system very fun, and pretty intuitive. The general trash is a lot harder in ch11 than it was in the rest of the game. Can't guarantee a 5 star rating every time anymore.

Upgrading weapons and accessories is pretty fun once you get down to it as well.

As far as the music, I like most of the themes just fine. The only real bad parts was that one chapter where there was sirens going off in the background. I had a pretty bad headache from that after grinding for awhile there I think that was ch9. For those not that far yet - I do recommend staying there and grinding the psicom stuff for the credit chips as much as you can bear. Gil is hard to come by.

For those not that far yet - I do recommend staying there and grinding the psicom stuff for the credit chips as much as you can bear. Gil is hard to come by.

The bane of all RPG's... not enough gil/credits/zenny/gold to go round...

Soon as I can be bothered I'll go pick up my limited collector's edition and give it a try. Of course, after I've played it I'll either praise it (unlikely from what I've seen and read so far, yet I'll give it a honest try) or flame it back to the pit of Hades, to the cell in Stygia Prison reserved for bad games (ET on the Atari, BoFV and The Bouncer reside there as well as the majority of Sega CD games and others.).

I lost interest in Chapter 11 and started up on Uncharted 2.

For those not that far yet - I do recommend staying there and grinding the psicom stuff for the credit chips as much as you can bear. Gil is hard to come by.

I definately recommend this also.. When soldiers start dropping incentive chips you will want to keep smashing them for all they have got... I have gone through the entire game hoping that you will pick up some sort of item often that you can trade in for gil.. but it never really happens. Once you start riding chocobos they sometimes dig up gold nuggets which can be sold for 60 grand. But besides that and the odd cactuar, moogle, or chocobo doll; gil is scarce. I am sure that there is a mission that will be able to be exploited for gil. However after 40 missions, I am still searching for the one which will make me rich.

Hmmm well its like this, for my self and many old RPG players will agree... (most likely i hope), yes this new FF LOOKS good ill give it that...


nankura
"People are saying it's to "linear" have we really forgotton about ff1-6 and 8? and even 10 ( 10 just had a phew extra spots in towns u could enter ), have we forgotton how linear these all were. its final fantasy's heart that is a linear game with a great story"

Lemmi stop you here. ff 1 - 6 was not as such linear. damn you could get lost in the world map at first on ff1... come think of it ff1 you spent most of your time lost. As for heart, FF9 MABEY 10 was the last of heart and spirit in games.

my take on it is as the years have gone by the heart of words in the games has slowley being replaced with graphical emotions. tho they havent been able to show those emotions untill 10. the heart behind the words has been lost apart from vivi in ff9 tha little dude rocks!

i know this is a ff forum but take the time to compair this mess of a game to some of the other games teranigma. the beauty of the game its self, some of the best graphics i have seen, the colour and beauty breath taking, Also its music?

Chrono trigger?? beauty, STORY, GAME PLAY, music?
Grandia. Story Fantasic, Game play Brilliant!
FF6 Captivating story, Proper dungions (you can get lost/stuck) Musicaly brilliant

In all these games you could feel and understand the emotions through the text and the movements. Now all is lost, prob for good and it greaves me.

First thoughs on FF13? its the begining of the end for RPG gamers

Hmmm well its like this, for my self and many old RPG players will agree... (most likely i hope), yes this new FF LOOKS good ill give it that...

"People are saying it's to "linear" have we really forgotton about ff1-6 and 8? and even 10 ( 10 just had a phew extra spots in towns u could enter ), have we forgotton how linear these all were. its final fantasy's heart that is a linear game with a great story"

Lemmi stop you here. ff 1 - 6 was not as such linear. damn you could get lost in the world map at first on ff1... come think of it ff1 you spent most of your time lost. As for heart, FF9 MABEY 10 was the last of heart and spirit in games.

my take on it is as the years have gone by the heart of words in the games has slowley being replaced with graphical emotions. tho they havent been able to show those emotions untill 10. the heart behind the words has been lost apart from vivi in ff9 tha little dude rocks!

i know this is a ff forum but take the time to compair this mess of a game to some of the other games teranigma. the beauty of the game its self, some of the best graphics i have seen, the colour and beauty breath taking, Also its music?

Chrono trigger?? beauty, STORY, GAME PLAY, music?
Grandia. Story Fantasic, Game play Brilliant!
FF6 Captivating story, Proper dungions (you can get lost/stuck) Musicaly brilliant

In all these games you could feel and understand the emotions through the text and the movements. Now all is lost, prob for good and it greaves me.

First thoughs on FF13? its the begining of the end for RPG gamers

:grammar:

Fair enough, I deserved that... lol

But my point is the same.

I could not agree more..

I do not think we will ever see the likes of games such as Chrono Trigger again...

In FF13 they have made it so that basically every NPC has there own voice, and if you walk near them then you might hear them talking. What a terrible waste of time.. I feel that stupid things like that is why the game has taken soo long to make.

Bring back Chrono Trigger and FF6 styles. Sure it is ok to have the main cast with voices, but what is wrong with having text and being able to interact with multiple characters.

Personally i thought that FF12 was better than this game. The gambit battle system at least gave you some control over your ai characters. The map system was better, the music was better, you had interaction with 100's of NPC's and you got an airship!

The only reason i continue playing FF13 is for the battle system. Graphics are amazing in this game, but if you gave the RPG gamer the choice between eye candy and gameplay value; I think we all know what the choice would be.

I agree with you about ff12. The only one thing that irritates me are the people who have no RPG exp and think they know about heart in a RPG. I mean damn it, i was playin the original Might or magic/Phantasy star... Now that was a adventure!

(off topic)
Although there is still light, You say we wont see the likes of chrono trigger (or like) again. Caught wind of a game called (The Last Story) by mist walker. check it out, Only 2 consept images and a music piece. It look/sounds old school!!

Gameplay/Battlesystem's - The battlesystem is without word's to describe how innovative and immersing this battlesystem truely is. its a little limited but when has ff not been. it brings to light a whole new style of gameplay. along with the old style that everyone loves, and keeps your interested and having fun almost the entire game

A little limited? Every FF was godawfully slow paced and boring in combat so far except for 12. There's your example for when it has not been.


I agree with you about ff12. The only one thing that irritates me are the people who have no RPG exp and think they know about heart in a RPG. I mean damn it, i was playin the original Might or magic/Phantasy star... Now that was a adventure!

(off topic)
Although there is still light, You say we wont see the likes of chrono trigger (or like) again. Caught wind of a game called (The Last Story) by mist walker. check it out, Only 2 consept images and a music piece. It look/sounds old school!!

You sound exactly like one of those elitist purists who talk about the old "classics" in the series like nothing can ever be as good or successful as the "old-school" games. It's like people around in the classical era of music thinking that any changes could never be as good as what's the greatest of the time, yet that stuff although is still recognized as good, isn't the popular form of music today, just as perhaps games like Chrono Trigger, Terranigma, FF6, Secret of Mana, etc are all classic games, you can't just simply perform self-fulfilling prophecy in saying games suck just because you were prejudiced against them and played them searching specifically for their faults. Many classics have issues of their own, and a game can never truly be perfect because in essence, they're made by people, and people are innately imperfect.

In the same sense, I believe that when you talk of people with no RPG experience, you're being condescending. Who is to say what is good or bad RPG experience? What if somebody played all of set X's games and someone else played all of set Y's games? Who can say who has better or more RPG experience? Just because you think X set of games is good doesn't mean that the rest is inferior and people who preferred the so-called inferior don't know true/good RPGs. They'll probably tell you the same thing. Who is to say about heart in RPGs?

You sound like somebody who is simply laying claim to enjoying "old school games" or "classics." These are essentually vague words that might be intentionally chosen to make yourself look good, like the people who need to have a NES in their room and cant just settle for an emulator, because the experience simply isn't the same.

Thats not exactly how it is...

FF13 is a great game. I would not have completed the game if i thought it was rubbish. There were things that could have been done better is all, small things, to make the game more fulfilling then just constant battling and unending cutscenes. It just seemed a little raw. Still rate the game 9/10.

For people that have not played games like Chrono Trigger, Seiken densetsu 3/Secret of Mana 2, FF6. It does not matter how you look at it, they are missing out. I did not play RPG's when i was growing up, and even though these games were from my era, I only played them through in the past couple of years.

If new style gaming will be all about smoke and mirrors then it will not be as good as it was back in the day.

And as for music, pop music is simply a fad. It is only a matter of time until one genre takes over from another, usually from older music influence I might add. Let us hope that it is the same with RPG gaming.

Whether or not they are missing out is not part of the question. While smoke and mirrors so far is an addition, it does not necessarily mean it is always the case that new technology and eye candy HAS TO subtract from quality of plot and gameplay! Sure it happens, but it doesn't have to happen every time. Yes, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, FF6 are all great games, but it does not mean AT ALL that a new game cannot ever reach the quality they had. It's been proven with games like Tales of Vesperia!

Same thing goes for music really, people take influence but if all they do is go back to the old and use the same old formula it will get boring. Influence is always an important part of it but it simply will always change and progress. I would never ever dare to call pop music a fad, because influence is in so many ways a chain. People may never have heard of classical composers but because each step of musical development has been based on the last, taking influence from today's pop music is taking influence from every other step along the way, indirectly. Music won't ever just revert back.

In summary, some of us can appreciate a game if we look at it on it's own. I believe most of the time, people dislike FF12 because of how it stands alone within it's series, but if you were to ignore the Final Fantasy label on it, and just appreciate it for what it is, you'll see it's actually a game that can hold its own very well!

I'm up to chapter 4 now and I've liked it so far. Not too sure about the battle system though, the paradigms are very rigid whereas the gambits in FFXII allowed you to programme in reactions that changed depending on the conditions, I really liked that, rather than ALL I CAN DO IS HEAL IN THIS MODE, HEAL, HEAL, HEAL. The story too is maybe a little patchy, the event logs reveal a lot more information than the cut scenes do. I dunno, I've no major gripes with it nor do I have any huge praise for any particular aspect bar the visuals, which is basically a given.

What they should do is remake FFX but add in the gambits and side-quests of FFXII, then they'd have a game.

And after beating it, I must say...pretty fun game overall.

The only thing that I have to say is that I hate how if your controlled character dies in battle, you get a game over. I think that the other characters (if any) are clearly capable of pulling out a phoenix down or a raise (if they are in a medic role).

I don't mind not having shops and towns. I mean, right from the start, you are on the run and practically fugitives so you can't just stop in town and shop around; especially if everybody is looking for you. The only exception I can think of is when Sazh and Vanille arrive in Nautilus; no one realizes that they are l'cie so I think that it would have been nice to have some shops available at that point only since it would make sense.

The only thing that I have to say is that I hate how if your controlled character dies in battle, you get a game over. I think that the other characters (if any) are clearly capable of pulling out a phoenix down or a raise (if they are in a medic role).



Well with being able to retry every battle it's really not a big deal to die. They have to put in at least some difficulty into the game.

True that =P .

*Yawn*

I've given FFXIII all I have, seriously.

I took a week off work, had to use up the annual leave b4 the next financial year so this seemed like a good time. Got the bus into town, picked up my reserved copy. Went home, cooked some bacon for a sarnie, made a coffee. Sat down in font of my 40" HDTV with FFXIII and played for all day. Got up the next day and played for a few hours, and the next too and the next. Sounds monotonous doesn't it?

Well not as bloody monotonous as FFXIII. I mean really. What a boring game. I seriously cannot believe that Square-Enix has made such a shocker. In this day and age, after all those FF greats. Shame on you SE.

What they should do is remake FFX but add in the gambits and side-quests of FFXII, then they'd have a game.

:seriously:



I sure hope FFXIII doesn't disappoint.

I sure hope FFXIII doesn't disappoint.

Personally I had my doubts. But lately I've started to change my mind. It sure doesn't look disappointing. I'll play it when I get a PS3. Wonder when that's gonna happen...

Yeh, I find myself wanting only to play it when I discover one of my friends has it, then make my decision on whether to buy it or not. But if personal tradition stands, I'll probably wind up just buying it anyhow after procrastinating for months and months and never playing it, just out of a dying urge to find out how it stacks up, and for a complete collection if for no other reason.

X was the only linear FF. Now with XIII out that makes a grand total of 2 linear FF games.

FFXII's linearity (is this a word?) is explained by the story though..

For the record, one can't call a game linear just because it has a plot.

As for FFXIII, I don't have it and in all likelihood will not be getting it, unless I find myself with a shitload of free time over the summer after finding a place to stay for the fall semester. It seems like the only thing everyone can agree on is that it is visually an extremely pretty game.

:seriously:


Absolutely seriously! FFX is my favourite in terms of story and FFXII was amazing in terms of gameplay but unfortunately its pOliTiCaL iNtRiGuE storyline ultimately reduced to who had the most magic stones, no good. FFX crossed with FFXII would be pretty spectacular, I reckon.

Having racked up about 15 hours of FFXIII at this stage I can definitely confirm I like it a lot. Linear but awesome, so far.

I am right near the end and I can say, ultimately, that my opinion on the game is, without a doubt, that overall it is definitly just OK.

I didn't like the game.

I wasn't going to buy FFXIII, since everything I had read about it after its Japanese release lead me to believe it wasn't going to be any good. Japanese fans were outspokenly critical of the game, and many Japanese reviews I read of the game scored it very low. However, I was walking around a Blockbuster and temptation got the better of me. I rented the game for three nights and I spent two days playing in non-stop to try and finish it. I didn't finish it.

The story is a mess for about the first 10 hours in. The Destructoid review worded it best when it said

Final Fantasy XIII has perhaps one of the worst introductions a Japanese RPG has ever had. Square Enix thought it would be a good idea to not tell the player what is happening, and as a result, the first ten hours of the game feels like a conversation that the player has stumbled in on halfway through. All the characters know what's going on, and talk as if the player should know, leading to a very alienating narrative that ensures the player never truly connects with it. When you finally do work out who is who and what's going on, however, you'll wish the game had stayed so vague.
and I agree with what was said, word for word, in the entire review. I was several hours into the game and had absolutely no idea what was happening or why I should care for anything (should I be siding with Pulse or Cocoon? What are Pulse and Cocoon? Why is their relationship the way it is?). Eventually I spent about half an hour+ reading through the entire datalog, and I was able to wrap my head around the world S-E was trying to create. I wondered why, though, they couldn't offer me the same vital information in the game.

The characters were average with the exception of Sazh (who I like a lot). In fact, I think I much prefer all of the male characters over the intolerable female ones. Vanille has probably the worst voice actor of all time, and a lot of her dialogue makes her sound like a borderline sociopath (except... she's not [they were just trying to make her sound cute]). It's sometimes really hard to know if she's being serious or comical (so we... run?) or how she feels about the situation. However, I mostly blame this problem on the fact that voice actor is woeful and couldn't stick to any form in her accent.

Lightning is an annoying character for the first 4 or so chapters, because she's extremely bullheaded and ends up punching away her problems more than Snow (and he uses fist weapons!). I wanted desperately for Fang to put her in her place when she got slapped by Lightning. This is not a technical fault in the writing though, so I'm willing to accept that the kind-of-lead character is totally unlikable for parts of the game. Eventually though, she wonders off with Hope and acts as a really shitty mentor. She says a bunch of stuff that doesn't mean anything, but I suppose the writers thought this would make her look deep or hardened by the life of being a city guard. And when she's not spouting nonsense, she cheesing it up with the most cringe-worthy dialogue I've ever encountered. Really! And it felt it was one (nonsense) or the other (cheese) with her - sometimes both! Speaking of cheese and nonsense, I feel mostly the same way about Vanille's narration.

Fang isn't bad, but her voice actor annoyed me too so she loses marks.

The battle system is great (I'd hold it on par with X-2's), but the gameplay for the first ~20 hours is not. The first three hours are spent fighting useless battles with no rewards that mostly serve as a way of splitting up all the cutscenes shown. Then, for the next ~10 hours, the game slowly opens up all the intricacies of the battle system to you. As for the actual battles... the stagger system ruined it for me, eventually. It never offers any challenge, it just lengthens the battles. Most of the time, you will either kill an enemy in seconds or spend upwards of a minute hacking away at its stagger bar - but it's never difficult. The stagger system truly shows its faults when you're stuck with a party of two (getting through Orions with Sazh and Vanille hurt my brain).

It just grows extremely tedious, especially when it's all you've got to do besides walking and watching cutscenes. I'm not even sure why people complain about some of the bosses in this game, because I never had trouble with any of them. Oh, and Summons are worthless.

Oh! And one more problem I had with the gameplay was the Sphere Grid 2. It felt unnecessary, to be honest. You could customise the sphere grid in FFX, but not this crystal thing. To me, it felt like a slow, awkward way of just... levelling up. I would have much preferred they just used a job system like they did in FFV and FFX-2 (mostly like the one in FFX-2 :3). The camera being inverted while levelling up your crystals also annoyed me. I probably could have changed it in the options somewhere, but I never bothered to look.

The music was fine (except for them ruining the chocobo theme), but there was nothing memorable in the mix except for that one motif they used over and over. It's just a shame, because I've come out of every other Final Fantasy and had several of its tracks follow me forever.

The 'no towns' thing isn't really a problem, since it works in the world they've created. I am fine with the party being on the run and not having time to drop into a town and do some shopping. However, the linearity argument does hold some truth once you recognise all of the dungeons prior to Pulse (~20 hours in) follow a pattern. Walk - Cutscene - Walk - Mini-Boss - Cutscene - Walk - Cutscene - Boss - Cutscene. After a while, it feels less natural and more forced. The actual literal linearity of the dungeons can feel forced too, like in the city during the introduction and in the forest area later with Sazh and Vanille.

I think I've pretty much covered everything.

The Destructoid review (http://www.destructoid.com/review-final-fantasy-xiii-167136.phtml) words my feelings far more clearly, so you should probably just read that. I read the review after I lost interest in the game about ~25 hours in, so my feelings were not influenced by it.

The lack of shops/towns/villages and the like did feel very artificial. I also found that I virtually never used the shops; only towards the end when I was buying components to upgrade my weapons/accessories. Without a shadow of a doubt, the lack of these elements impacted on the game and enhanced that linearity. The only thing I can say in response is that the nature of the narrative is that the characters are constantly on the run. It wouldn't be inkeeping with the story if you were able to stop off at towns to visit shops and do side-quests. But I would have liked to see such a beautiful world opened up a little more.

I found the battle system to be fairly satisfying and entertaining. The fast paced nature of it negated some of the tedium. But one of the gripes I have is that [especially with field battles], you would find yourself using auto-battle; i.e. pressing A repeatedly [with the exception of maybe changing paradigms].

One thing I didn't like is the upgrading weapons/accessories idea. It seemed very messy. The idea that you use certain components is fine, but it's never even remotely explained which ones are best. While this encourages "experimenting", it doesn't really fit in with the linear nature of the game.

Agree with above about Crystarium. What's the point in it? Might has well have a levelling or job system which does it for you rather than you have to do it manually. It's basically the Sphere Grid with any excess trimmed off. It was pretty though.

I actually quite liked the story overall, it's a bit confusing at times but I think it's pretty solid mostly, and rather affecting. Found it to have plenty of twists and turns, a little clich� [but what FF doesn't have clich�s]. However I found using the datalog to find out information I'd ordinarily be finding from townspeople to also be forced and artificial.

Didn't like Vanille's "cutesy" voice/noises/animations. Fang was okay but her accent was ropey. I liked Lightning after she lightened up a bit beyond around Chapter 6 onwards. I liked Hope after around Chapter 9-10 when he stopped being a whiny, angsty, irritating tween. Snow has a charm about him, although I didn't really like the Hero saving the day act. I think Sazh was the best written character, and was the most genuinely likeable.

Now that I've sorted of dug into the game I guess I should probably say that overall I did enjoy it a lot. Part of me didn't like the emptiness of the world, kind of stylisitically filled with gorgeous animations and polished graphics. But it's definitely a different type of Final Fantasy experience. The game world is beautiful, the music was brilliant etc, enjoyed the story, the battle was fairly satisfying if tedious at times.

Only finished it a couple of hours ago, had lotsa uni work to do.

/end of jumbled review

I agree with Rapture, FSITO, and others.

XIII is embarrassingly awful.

This game should be picked apart and every flaw should be complaint about into infamy.

So... I've finished Chapter three and yet I'm still wondering why I'm playing this game? True, the graphics are nice... but that's about it so far. The music is so-so and the combat system, imo, is a case of 'worked good on paper, but in practice no...' From what I've seen so far of the story, it's failing to impress me.

Having played some of the game, my first impression is to agree with FSITO and Rapture. I can't speak for everyone else, but for me, if a game has failed to capture my interest in the first hour, then it won't. Period. I honestly don't know whether to continue playing this or not, but I probably will play it again later... if only to get the Xbox Live Achievements and nothing else.

So... I've finished Chapter three and yet I'm still wondering why I'm playing this game? True, the graphics are nice... but that's about it so far. The music is so-so and the combat system, imo, is a case of 'worked good on paper, but in practice no...' From what I've seen so far of the story, it's failing to impress me.

Having played some of the game, my first impression is to agree with FSITO and Rapture. I can't speak for everyone else, but for me, if a game has failed to capture my interest in the first hour, then it won't. Period. I honestly don't know whether to continue playing this or not, but I probably will play it again later... if only to get the Xbox Live Achievements and nothing else.

My thoughts are pretty much the same.

I didn't played the game but FSITO & Destructoid review describes the game as I imagined it...
A circus of flashing lights...

if a game has failed to capture my interest in the first hour, then it won't. Period.

Many really fantastic games are slow starters to help give a feeling of totally normal characters caught up in situations well beyond them. I suspect you've given up a lot of decent titles to this problem...?

Many really fantastic games are slow starters to help give a feeling of totally normal characters caught up in situations well beyond them. I suspect you've given up a lot of decent titles to this problem...?

What you may consider 'fantastic' may be considered by others to be a waste of time. IMO SE is losing it's touch, what with The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery and now FFXIII.

TBH I don't really play many games nowadays, only a select few which can attract my attention. Unfortunately, there's not many of them available at this time.

What you may consider 'fantastic' may be considered by others to be a waste of time. IMO SE is losing it's touch, what with The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery and now FFXIII.

TBH I don't really play many games nowadays, only a select few which can attract my attention. Unfortunately, there's not many of them available at this time.

Okay, fair enough, but for the record SE is not games I consider 'fantastic.' Some of them are alright but whatever.

Infinite Undiscovery is only published by Square Enix, it's made by tri-ace, the people behind star ocean, a good series. i wonder how this Infinite Undiscovery is... looks like ff12 in some ways.

The Last Remnant seems to be completely uninteresting, dry, stereotypical castles and knights D&D fantasy.

Only recently I started playing it, and first impression? Well, quite a visual feast mostly!
The gameplay's pretty fun so far, the tutorials are not a bore at all (the only ~difficult~ part I've encountered so far is that I died a couple of times when getting the Shiva sisters, overall it's still figuring out how to do the most damage in the best way, but I'm getting there. x]), the music's smooth and not too repetitive, and the datalog is pretty neat!

The very first sequence of the game reminded me quite a lot of FFVII, !

And a baby chocobo in an afro, priceless. <3

Just defeated the Dreadnaught. A hell of a lot of savepoints makes the gameplay feel very easy though at this point, not that it irritates. :D

gameplay = 9.5
st0ry = 9
music = 8.5 [l0ve the 0rphan battle music, s0unds like theri0n]
characters = l0ve Sazh, hate Vanille
graphic = 9.5 [i think Drake 2 & G0d 0f War 3 are prettier]

0verall = great!...

What's with the capital O's sausage dude?

Calling it Drake 2 is cute as hell, ngl :D

Just defeated the Dreadnaught. A hell of a lot of savepoints makes the gameplay feel very easy though at this point, not that it irritates.

I think that it had too many save points to begin with.