Would you save a world that doesn't want you in it?
Is anyone having problems with trophies on the PS3 because I have been. I'm off line quite a bit so I have to update my profile with my current progress and have that reflect my level, I'm not a trophy whore or anything but a few of them haven't been updating. Mainly FF XIII, Demon's Souls, Fight Night Round 4 doesn't register and Yakuza 3. If anyone is having the same problem on the old Gogger with their PEE ESS THREE, please contact me.
Now, this review is going to be a bit more professional than my usual fair. I've gone through about 4 drafts attempting to formulate my thoughts on Final Fantasy XIII and I've reached a conclusion. Final Fantasy XIII is the weakest entry in the series from a storytelling standpoint. I've been railing against XIII for about 3 years now, so my opinion may be a tad jaded but I gave it a fair shake. I put time into it, which was apparently insignificant given the obscene length of the game even against it's predecessors. 60+ hours in a video game is a bit of an undertaking, especially as a student but I'm a hardcore gamer. I won't let this casual generation of regenerating health and Revenge Meters get to me. I also realized I haven't written reviews for Bayonetta, NMH2 or Mass Effect 2 yet. I'll get on that!
Now anyway, back to FF XIII. From all of the professional publications that I've read, they aren't willing to give FF XIII the rating it deserves, a 6. Why? Because it prints money and game journalism is comprised of folks trying to line their pockets. Now what's really interesting about the game reviewing world is that almost every review I have read comes of absolutely negative and yet is given a 9 or an A- in the case of the once glorious 1Up that has slowly become a cesspool of corruption. Reviewers are willing to cast aside the one thing they have, opinions for capital. That's why the online reviewing is the last bastion for the gamer; they can get the truth because most of the reviewers aren't bound by money.
Sorry to come off a little heavy handed but as a veteran FF gamer, I'm outraged at how the industry works. If they smeared some of Nomura and Kitase's crap on the inside of the case and wrote FINAL FANTASHII SURTEEN, and then shipped it...they would have sold 1 Million copies anyway. FF is a brand, it's an institution all it's own, it prints money. So the good folks at Square-Enix who haven't made a good game since Romancing SaGa (and FFIVDS but that's just a remake) in my opinion, can slap together a mediocre game like Final Fantasy XIII.
The game is beautiful, the production values are through the roof but it falls short in a few departments. For one, the game doesn't trust you with the mechanics for a solid 20 hours. You play a tutorial for about 20 hours, learning the basics. Hey Square-Enix, I know it's a new battle system and all but you trusted me with FF XII's mess of a combat system. I think this is related to how games are very much pandered to a casual audience now. Having to unlock very hard, having your life regen, check points, etc. They made a JRPG on rails, essentially.
Now, I got goose bumps when the opening FMV played. I was really pumped in fact, but then everything began to get less than engaging. The battle system is solid but once you unlock the Paradigm Shift and begin to build stats, it becomes a matter of when do I shift to medic, when do I shift to commando or saboteur then back to medic while mashing X with Lightning. I've written some Faqs and have found exploits in most of the FF games that I could work to my advantage but the one thing that set them apart was that, I was in absolute control. I understand that you can choose options and auto-battle can be turned off but in that case, why have it on?
Also the basis for the battle system, this is rich. Based off of the fight scenes from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, the game moves characters around the screen as the fight on and on. Lightning does some flips, Sahz does some gun kata, Vanille runs around like a school girl and the enemy will attack in between your ATB charging. If you enjoy the fight scenes in Advent Children, you must be a fan of motion blur and The Matrix Revolutions. My gripe with how the battle system is presented is that despite having movement with every action, you are still technically "static" in between turns. It's simulated Real-Time, stuff is going on in between attacks but the battles are still governed by an ATB bar. I enjoy the original ATB system but XIII is like a hybrid of X and Crisis Core's battle system. Crisis Core was real time however everything still had a cool down period. I think that XIII's battle system is unique and interesting but it has some flaws that make their presence known.
Now we move on to the story. The plot of Final Fantasy XIII takes place in a world known as Pulse and revolves around the story of the fal'Cie mechanical beings with godlike power created by a being called the Maker. Each fal'Cie has crystals residing inside them People who are marked by the fal'Cie are called l'Cie. Each l'Cie has a Focus, a goal the fal'Cie wants him or her to fulfill within a certain amount of time; however, the fal'Cie do not explicitly say what the goal is: l'Cie learn what their Focus is by interpreting visions that are given to them. L'Cie may also gain the ability to summon an Eidolon, monsters who fight with the l'Cie. However, if a l'Cie dies before completing his or her Focus, fails to tame his or her Eidolon, or fails to complete his or her Focus within a set period of time, he or she becomes a monster known as a Cie'th .If a l'Cie does complete his or her Focus, the reward is not much better: permanent transformation into a crystal. For this reason, being chosen as a l'Cie is seen as a curse. Can you tell that I copy pasted that from Wikipedia? I was really subtle. Our protagonist, Lightning is the former sergeant of the Guardian Corps. She is on a quest to protect her sister, Serah.
She is basically Cloud Strife, or at least the Advent Children iteration of him given they made him a total angsty puss. FFXIII's director, Yoshinori Kitase says that Lightning was not designed to be a female Cloud Strife and their only similarity is that they are both soldiers and she's more fragile than Cloud. I contest this by saying that Lightning doesn everything within her power to not be seen as fragile and comes of as a cold, aloof, bitch. She has a total disconnect with the rest of the cast and is written to be more brooding than Cloud Strife and Squall Leonheart combined. Cloud Strife is an incredibly confused and fragile protagonist, given he doesn’t have a real understanding of who he is and has taken on Zack Fair's life as his own.
He faces real adversity and in fact brought some it on himself when he took on Zack's burdensome memories of Sephiroth and the "destruction" of Nibelhelm. But the difference between Cloud Strife and Lightning is this, Cloud mans the F$&* up! He casts his problems aside to protect the people close to him and save the world from immanent catastrophe. Tetsuya Nomura turned Cloud Strife into a parody of what he was in that original game I loved so much as a 10 year old, a emo angsty buttercup who clutches his hand to his dick and says "Aerith, Sephiroth,Aerith, Sephiroth,Aerith, Sephiroth, SEPHIROTH, AERITH!"
Off of that tangent, the supporting cast is just as weak. Snow Villers is a wannabe Kamina who wants to stick it in Serah's Chrystal Chronicle, he also happens to be braindead. Hope aka Shinji Ikari is the token confused teenager who's all like "MY MAWM IS DED, I'll brood about it for 15 hours of gameplay then finally confront Snow who was only partially responsible." Someone on GameFAQs argued that "Would you want to confront someone after your mom died!?" in which I said "No, I would be crying like a baby for about 3 days rather than puting my head between my legs and going "THIS IS ALL YOOOOOUR FAULT, SNOW" without actually saying it. I would be very depressed for a very long time and then I would move on with my life, trying to cherish the memory of my mother. If you're willing to bring up a hypothetical question about one's parent dying to defend a video game, then you're a very unhealthy individual.
Guy 1: I don't care for Heavy Rain.
Guy 2: WHAT IF YOUR SON GOT KIDNAPPED AND YOU WERE SENT A MESSAGE TO CUT OFF YOUR FINGER!?!!? HMMMMMMMMM!?
Guy 1: I would call the police and be very worried about my son's well-being.
TEH EDN
Anyway, Vanille is a super genki girl who really ruins the mood with her positive attitude and bad voice acting. Now I know I argued that you can't be a brooding sourpuss forever but you also can't just smile your way through every situation...that's how you get an ulcer. Fang is incredibly hot and has an awesome accent. She is basically Sir Henry from No More Heroes. She and Vanille are lesbians.
Sahz Katsroy is the only likable and rational person in the entire game, bar none. He should have been the protagonist, without a doubt. We've had female protagonists, where's the BLACK PROTAGONIST!? SAY IT LOUD, I'M BLACK AND I'M PROUD!! Sahz is the mediator in a lot of high tension situations, trying to level everyone's flaring personalities and getting them back on track without being a hardass like Lightning is. He also happens to be voice by Reno Wilson aka The Black Baron MOTHERF&^%ERS!!! TIME FOR A SANCTUM CHALLENGE! It's a shame he boils down to being the comedy relief but this game really needed some comedy.
Now, this review is going to be a bit more professional than my usual fair. I've gone through about 4 drafts attempting to formulate my thoughts on Final Fantasy XIII and I've reached a conclusion. Final Fantasy XIII is the weakest entry in the series from a storytelling standpoint. I've been railing against XIII for about 3 years now, so my opinion may be a tad jaded but I gave it a fair shake. I put time into it, which was apparently insignificant given the obscene length of the game even against it's predecessors. 60+ hours in a video game is a bit of an undertaking, especially as a student but I'm a hardcore gamer. I won't let this casual generation of regenerating health and Revenge Meters get to me. I also realized I haven't written reviews for Bayonetta, NMH2 or Mass Effect 2 yet. I'll get on that!
Now anyway, back to FF XIII. From all of the professional publications that I've read, they aren't willing to give FF XIII the rating it deserves, a 6. Why? Because it prints money and game journalism is comprised of folks trying to line their pockets. Now what's really interesting about the game reviewing world is that almost every review I have read comes of absolutely negative and yet is given a 9 or an A- in the case of the once glorious 1Up that has slowly become a cesspool of corruption. Reviewers are willing to cast aside the one thing they have, opinions for capital. That's why the online reviewing is the last bastion for the gamer; they can get the truth because most of the reviewers aren't bound by money.
Sorry to come off a little heavy handed but as a veteran FF gamer, I'm outraged at how the industry works. If they smeared some of Nomura and Kitase's crap on the inside of the case and wrote FINAL FANTASHII SURTEEN, and then shipped it...they would have sold 1 Million copies anyway. FF is a brand, it's an institution all it's own, it prints money. So the good folks at Square-Enix who haven't made a good game since Romancing SaGa (and FFIVDS but that's just a remake) in my opinion, can slap together a mediocre game like Final Fantasy XIII.
The game is beautiful, the production values are through the roof but it falls short in a few departments. For one, the game doesn't trust you with the mechanics for a solid 20 hours. You play a tutorial for about 20 hours, learning the basics. Hey Square-Enix, I know it's a new battle system and all but you trusted me with FF XII's mess of a combat system. I think this is related to how games are very much pandered to a casual audience now. Having to unlock very hard, having your life regen, check points, etc. They made a JRPG on rails, essentially.
Now, I got goose bumps when the opening FMV played. I was really pumped in fact, but then everything began to get less than engaging. The battle system is solid but once you unlock the Paradigm Shift and begin to build stats, it becomes a matter of when do I shift to medic, when do I shift to commando or saboteur then back to medic while mashing X with Lightning. I've written some Faqs and have found exploits in most of the FF games that I could work to my advantage but the one thing that set them apart was that, I was in absolute control. I understand that you can choose options and auto-battle can be turned off but in that case, why have it on?
Also the basis for the battle system, this is rich. Based off of the fight scenes from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, the game moves characters around the screen as the fight on and on. Lightning does some flips, Sahz does some gun kata, Vanille runs around like a school girl and the enemy will attack in between your ATB charging. If you enjoy the fight scenes in Advent Children, you must be a fan of motion blur and The Matrix Revolutions. My gripe with how the battle system is presented is that despite having movement with every action, you are still technically "static" in between turns. It's simulated Real-Time, stuff is going on in between attacks but the battles are still governed by an ATB bar. I enjoy the original ATB system but XIII is like a hybrid of X and Crisis Core's battle system. Crisis Core was real time however everything still had a cool down period. I think that XIII's battle system is unique and interesting but it has some flaws that make their presence known.
Now we move on to the story. The plot of Final Fantasy XIII takes place in a world known as Pulse and revolves around the story of the fal'Cie mechanical beings with godlike power created by a being called the Maker. Each fal'Cie has crystals residing inside them People who are marked by the fal'Cie are called l'Cie. Each l'Cie has a Focus, a goal the fal'Cie wants him or her to fulfill within a certain amount of time; however, the fal'Cie do not explicitly say what the goal is: l'Cie learn what their Focus is by interpreting visions that are given to them. L'Cie may also gain the ability to summon an Eidolon, monsters who fight with the l'Cie. However, if a l'Cie dies before completing his or her Focus, fails to tame his or her Eidolon, or fails to complete his or her Focus within a set period of time, he or she becomes a monster known as a Cie'th .If a l'Cie does complete his or her Focus, the reward is not much better: permanent transformation into a crystal. For this reason, being chosen as a l'Cie is seen as a curse. Can you tell that I copy pasted that from Wikipedia? I was really subtle. Our protagonist, Lightning is the former sergeant of the Guardian Corps. She is on a quest to protect her sister, Serah.
She is basically Cloud Strife, or at least the Advent Children iteration of him given they made him a total angsty puss. FFXIII's director, Yoshinori Kitase says that Lightning was not designed to be a female Cloud Strife and their only similarity is that they are both soldiers and she's more fragile than Cloud. I contest this by saying that Lightning doesn everything within her power to not be seen as fragile and comes of as a cold, aloof, bitch. She has a total disconnect with the rest of the cast and is written to be more brooding than Cloud Strife and Squall Leonheart combined. Cloud Strife is an incredibly confused and fragile protagonist, given he doesn’t have a real understanding of who he is and has taken on Zack Fair's life as his own.
He faces real adversity and in fact brought some it on himself when he took on Zack's burdensome memories of Sephiroth and the "destruction" of Nibelhelm. But the difference between Cloud Strife and Lightning is this, Cloud mans the F$&* up! He casts his problems aside to protect the people close to him and save the world from immanent catastrophe. Tetsuya Nomura turned Cloud Strife into a parody of what he was in that original game I loved so much as a 10 year old, a emo angsty buttercup who clutches his hand to his dick and says "Aerith, Sephiroth,Aerith, Sephiroth,Aerith, Sephiroth, SEPHIROTH, AERITH!"
Off of that tangent, the supporting cast is just as weak. Snow Villers is a wannabe Kamina who wants to stick it in Serah's Chrystal Chronicle, he also happens to be braindead. Hope aka Shinji Ikari is the token confused teenager who's all like "MY MAWM IS DED, I'll brood about it for 15 hours of gameplay then finally confront Snow who was only partially responsible." Someone on GameFAQs argued that "Would you want to confront someone after your mom died!?" in which I said "No, I would be crying like a baby for about 3 days rather than puting my head between my legs and going "THIS IS ALL YOOOOOUR FAULT, SNOW" without actually saying it. I would be very depressed for a very long time and then I would move on with my life, trying to cherish the memory of my mother. If you're willing to bring up a hypothetical question about one's parent dying to defend a video game, then you're a very unhealthy individual.
Guy 1: I don't care for Heavy Rain.
Guy 2: WHAT IF YOUR SON GOT KIDNAPPED AND YOU WERE SENT A MESSAGE TO CUT OFF YOUR FINGER!?!!? HMMMMMMMMM!?
Guy 1: I would call the police and be very worried about my son's well-being.
TEH EDN
Anyway, Vanille is a super genki girl who really ruins the mood with her positive attitude and bad voice acting. Now I know I argued that you can't be a brooding sourpuss forever but you also can't just smile your way through every situation...that's how you get an ulcer. Fang is incredibly hot and has an awesome accent. She is basically Sir Henry from No More Heroes. She and Vanille are lesbians.
Sahz Katsroy is the only likable and rational person in the entire game, bar none. He should have been the protagonist, without a doubt. We've had female protagonists, where's the BLACK PROTAGONIST!? SAY IT LOUD, I'M BLACK AND I'M PROUD!! Sahz is the mediator in a lot of high tension situations, trying to level everyone's flaring personalities and getting them back on track without being a hardass like Lightning is. He also happens to be voice by Reno Wilson aka The Black Baron MOTHERF&^%ERS!!! TIME FOR A SANCTUM CHALLENGE! It's a shame he boils down to being the comedy relief but this game really needed some comedy.
Although I should make it clear that Sahz is made into a more endearing character as the story progresses, it's a bit too late. His kid is dead or something....
I have this crazy rule that in a story driven title that is about 60 hours long, I have to like the characters to delve deep into it. Sahz is the only one in the group that I like. Being voiced by The Black Baron explains it all in fact. Also he has a frocobo and a frilly racecar mount. Cid Raines is also awesome. Jihl is my waifu.
Another point thing about the mechanics, The Crystarium especially. They're very reminiscent of Final Fantasy X's sphere grid. Leveling core abilities and stats, the stats like Agility, Def, Int, etc have been removed and they only focus on the core abilities of HP, Strength and Magic.
The game has some parts that make it stand out above the crowd but it's a bit of a let down in my opinion. Now standing as the fastest selling FF game with 1 Million in it's first business week it shows that people were hungry for a Square-Enix game, it'd didn't matter if it was a good one.
Final Fantasy XIII gets a 6.5/10 from me. Also Leona Lewis sucks, now I'm just trolling.
.
I have this crazy rule that in a story driven title that is about 60 hours long, I have to like the characters to delve deep into it. Sahz is the only one in the group that I like. Being voiced by The Black Baron explains it all in fact. Also he has a frocobo and a frilly racecar mount. Cid Raines is also awesome. Jihl is my waifu.
Another point thing about the mechanics, The Crystarium especially. They're very reminiscent of Final Fantasy X's sphere grid. Leveling core abilities and stats, the stats like Agility, Def, Int, etc have been removed and they only focus on the core abilities of HP, Strength and Magic.
The game has some parts that make it stand out above the crowd but it's a bit of a let down in my opinion. Now standing as the fastest selling FF game with 1 Million in it's first business week it shows that people were hungry for a Square-Enix game, it'd didn't matter if it was a good one.
Final Fantasy XIII gets a 6.5/10 from me. Also Leona Lewis sucks, now I'm just trolling.
.
8 comments:
Long review is long.
This is making me want to play Final Fantasy 13. I know someone who has it, and I'd just play it just to rip the *&%^ out of it.
I haven't made a review for a game for a long while, because it usually entails swearing to get out an interesting review... this is making me think about what I thought of FF10, there is a long winding train of thought in that. FF series trying to be increasing competitive in a more saturated market of quality rpgs and the company trying to stick their necks out above the sea, but eventually become intrenched in their safe methods of game developing.
It would be far too anecdotal rather there being any real evidence with that tho'.
my friend heatingpad is getting FFXIII (i hope ur reading this!) and i hope this review makes him bleed some.
I've wanted to write a paper on the decline of the Japanese RPG and I think that Final Fantasy XIII is a good catalyst for that kind of endeavor. I really enjoy your reviews Mr.Mazin, your Mass Effect one was a big part of me picking that game up and becoming utterly obsessed with it.
I loved FF13 and I generally hate JRPGs. No particular reason, I just did, despite the cliche storm. I liked that the game was linear, feeling that the well-script action scenarios made the game a thrilling ride. And I loved when the world finally opened up in Chapter 11. Without spoiling anything, Gran Pulse is absolutely stunning.
I find it hard to believe that you played through Chapter 9 and beyond and still say that Sazh "boils down to being the comedy relief." That chapter in particular makes you feel awful for the guy and appreciate him as a father.
I also find it very hard to believe that this review went through four drafts. A lot of your sentences are made difficult to read due to very avoidable typos and grammar problems.
Also, what's the deal with the complaining about pressing X and R1 a lot?
You're playing a fucking console RPG. No really, that's twice as many buttons as most of them use. Did Final Fantasy 7 magically have you press X button less?
One feature I really liked was the Auto-Battle command. Playing other console RPGs again where I tell each of my party members to attack, attack, attack, heal, heal, heal with the X button, I was wondering WhereTF is my auto-battle?
Further, to play the game well, there's a lot of press Y to execute your queu early and B to cancel it altogether and save teh ATB to do other stuff.
Chapter 9 and onward is heavy handed and yeah there are some serious typos. I think I'll edit it again, I'm sure you would like the linearity given you don't like JRPGs that much. FF XIII does everything it can be to not be a JRPG. And another thing about console RPGs, pressing X for auto-battle again and again is a bit tiresome, I just enjoy having some room to strategize.
Game is on rails, it has some very spectacular parts and I hope they do it better with FFXV.
Well, my reply is in the board 208 thread, I won't be filling up Ripcord Goggger with debate, but I will say that I don't believe you played to the end if you think "His kid is dead or something...."
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