Final Fantasy XIII

[Xannidel]

So I finally got around to playing Final Fantasy XIII for about 24 game hours and I want to know from you fine folks what you thought about the game. This is not including XIII-2 because I have not played it yet and would rather avoid possible spoilers.

[BumblebeeCody]

Personally I didn't like Lightning though she improves over the course of the game. I thought it was a solid game that had amazing music and visuals(as usual for the FF games).

The story though...oh man the story was absolute wank. Horrible mess that just...I dunno. No joke or exaggeration. If you ask me about it, I wouldn't know what the hell to respond with. No idea what it was about. But the gameplay was what kept me going in it. I enjoyed the world enough to clock in around 100 hours despite the stupid story. The missions added a lot of replay-ability and was an overall fun game to play. I still love the soundtrack.

As for FFXIII2, both aren't even related. It's basically
"Lets take characters from this story we made and completely make a new story irrelevant to the previous, though add a few references and then publish it". It's not really needed to play the second and the story in the second is MUCH better.

[Xannidel]

Sadly I am a sucker for playing games in chronological order (Well not in FF's case most of the time) so regardless if the story really counts for much in both games I still gotta play them in that orderb ecause they slapped a big ol '-2' at the end.

It took me a while to get used to the L'Cie and Fal'Cie and Eidolons and stuff like that but after watching the cutscenes (Only on chapter 11 and suffering from the "Oh God, oh God I need to upgrade EVERYONE" syndrome ATM so story progression has been halted.

I will get XIII-2 once I am thoroughly happy with what I have done in XIII.

[BumblebeeCody]

Yeah I recommend playing them in order to see their backstory and how they interact with each other. But it's hardly important to know for FFXIII-2.

[Xannidel]

Also I wanted to bash Snow's smug face in about 30 times before I was able to form my own party and NEVER hear his annoying voice in game again.

[BumblebeeCody]

(01-18-2013 01:39 AM)Xannidel Wrote:  Also I wanted to bash Snow's smug face in about 30 times before I was able to form my own party and NEVER hear his annoying voice in game again.

Same but with Hope. I hate that character. Whiny shi- with zero redeeming factors. He matures into a fine cheese in FFXIII-2 though. I HATE Vanilles run though. Ughhhh. Lightning also needs to a kick to the face.

[Xannidel]

Here is how I feel towards each character after beating Taejin's Tower in chapter 11:

Lightning: She is starting to warm up since the beginning of the game, she is also accepting Snow as her future brother in law. She is still not smiling but not many people in Final Fantasy games do that often. Never really had a problem with her at all because I sort of had this feeling she was going to be cold throughout the game...I was right. Her Eidolen fight was a little unexpected but I think that is when she starts to grow emotions other then "GOTTA GO KILL PSICOM, GOTTA GO KILL EVERYTHING!!! RAIJFSUANSGIAN!"

Hope: OH BOY! Wow was I wanting to hurt him from the beginning because of how whinny he was, he starts to learn how to fight with Lightning (Best role model, see above). Also he sort of has this revenge motive and I was so certain that his Eidolen battle would be during that scene when he is alone with Snow, but nope. His Eidolen fight is equal to that of an emo child trying to get attention which kind of pissed me off because he really matures after that revenge confrontation.

Snow: Hate him even now, still the smug asshat that he always was but now everyone has sort of lobotomized that part of their brain where they gave a shit. Has this weird turn-on with this tear shaped gem that is probably not healthy for him. His Eidolen fight was semi relevant to his conflicting emotions. Never used him when I had the chance to form my own part and probably never will. Seriously, fuck off Snow.

Fang: She sort of just slides into the story at the middle of the game and everyone seems to not care who joins them and she makes up the 6th party member. Kind of the wild card who only cares about herself and Vanille, which makes sense later on in the game when they are still offering back story. Her Eidolen fight was not too cliche but was meant to further progress the game which is silly (Seriously, her Eidolen created a path out of...Magic I suppose and that is how they escape one area to go to another).

Sazh: My favorite character who I could really relate to (well okay I don't have a son but that's beside the point). He is your typical older character who has his own problems but tries not to let that hinder him...oh yeah and he has a baby chocobo in his hair, go figure on that one. His Eidolen fight was the one that I knew was going to happen and I felt that it was one of the only ones that really was not forced via the characters emotions.

Vanille: My favorite female character for the game, comes off goofy and kooky at first which I guess was a nice change from Lightning's "RAAAAA SMASH AND KILL ALL" emotions and Hope's "WAAAA MY MOMMY IS DEAD!!! FEEL SORRY FOR ME!!!" bullshit and Snow's smug attitude. Her Eidolen fight was the one that really irked me because it was the one that was the most forced out, she had no terrible outburst like everyone else did, all she did was keep pretending that she was the one that did something bad a long time ago and BAM there is her Eidolen ready to do what they do best..Be very, very, VERY annoying.

So there is how I feel towards every playable character right now.

[Ouberry_13]

I've already mentioned on other threads my feelings towards FF13: I hate it. Plain and simple. My reason for hating it has to deal with the characters and story. The gameplay is ridiculously easy and almost pointless due to the auto-battle option (which begs the question why have gameplay if you're gonna put in such an option), so there's no real issue I have with that...

Honestly, Sazh is the only character I can stand, mainly due to the fact he's the most human of all the characters. Plus, he has guns. Any FF character who uses guns is automatically placed in my 'not as stupid as the others' list.

The only other issue I have with the game is that the game never explains anything. You're just supposed to know what a Fal'Cie is and what it does, because the game never tells you. Same goes for what being turned into an L'Cie means in this world. Same for just about everything. The only source of information is either the internet or the in-game datalogs, which is such bullshit. An in-game library like that should never be used for explaining everything, instead it should be used to expand upon what the player learns from the story.

[BumblebeeCody]

(01-19-2013 09:47 AM)Ouberry_13 Wrote:  I've already mentioned on other threads my feelings towards FF13: I hate it. Plain and simple. My reason for hating it has to deal with the characters and story. The gameplay is ridiculously easy and almost pointless due to the auto-battle option (which begs the question why have gameplay if you're gonna put in such an option), so there's no real issue I have with that...

Honestly, Sazh is the only character I can stand, mainly due to the fact he's the most human of all the characters. Plus, he has guns. Any FF character who uses guns is automatically placed in my 'not as stupid as the others' list.

The only other issue I have with the game is that the game never explains anything. You're just supposed to know what a Fal'Cie is and what it does, because the game never tells you. Same goes for what being turned into an L'Cie means in this world. Same for just about everything. The only source of information is either the internet or the in-game datalogs, which is such bullshit. An in-game library like that should never be used for explaining everything, instead it should be used to expand upon what the player learns from the story.

Auto battle wasn't as simple as people though. You had the role of Commando and only a few moves, so selecting auto-battle would select those attacks available to you instead of wasting time. If you were a Ravager, auto-battle would use your default Ravager techniques and so-on. Auto-battle was a smart system and really didn't take away from gameplay since you could manual select the moves.

Everything else though I agree with. Sazh was a cool dude and hard to dislike. Snow was OK but a serious knobhead that was seriously...dumb. I liked Fang as well. Mature and had a good role in the series. Knew what her fate was but also carried the burden of what she did to Vanille. Fang and Sazh seemed normal. Never really in your face. EVERY character in FFXIII really matures into a great character(apart from your personal favourite (@ Xannidel)).

The story Fal'Cie, L'Cie etc etc is all BS. It was explained in the back story of the chapter notes but meh. It's a meh story even if you read that.

[Xannidel]

I am now stuck because of the all important " middle 'fuck you player' finger" Doom ability that the end boss of chapter 11 uses when his HP gets around 30-45%. It takes you over 20-25 mins to get it down that far and then the Doom ability gives you roughly 1-3 mins (I never really timed it) and so you can't win. the Doom ability can't be avoided and I just give up for now. I did 5 separate attempts at this boss and now I am just wasting my time playing the game.

I love the game, the story and everything in between but this Doom ability is total BS that gives the game the right to stop you from beating the game. If there is a way to AVOID him casting this ability then let me know otherwise I am just going to watch a video walkthrough which pisses me off because of the time I invested into this game.

@ Cody: I had 2 favorites in XIII, Vanille and Sazh. I mentioned that Sazh develops as a character and all and so does Vanille but it takes a little longer because she is more or less to blame for EVERYTHING that has happened since she awakens from her crystal slumber.

*EDIT*
Okay so I FINALLY was able to beat the end boss of chapter 11, took me 22 mins with another gorram doom counter that was around 200-300, Lightning down to roughly 150-200 HP, Fang dead, 1 Odin Eidolen summon and a lot of excessive button mashing but I finally did it...

[TehEvilOne]

I haven't played it, but from Jontron's video of the game, I shouldn't even pick it up.

[BumblebeeCody]

(01-20-2013 04:57 AM)TehEvilOne Wrote:  I haven't played it, but from Jontron's video of the game, I shouldn't even pick it up.

You do realise that's an exaggeration of the game right?

[TehEvilOne]

(01-20-2013 05:02 AM)BumblebeeCody Wrote:  

(01-20-2013 04:57 AM)TehEvilOne Wrote:  I haven't played it, but from Jontron's video of the game, I shouldn't even pick it up.

You do realise that's an exaggeration of the game right?

Yeah. I actually did play the game once with a friend. I asked him if I can borrow the game and he said sure.

After like ten minutes, I stopped playing.

[Xannidel]

10 mins is not really enough time to base an honest opinion on ANY game. Granted this game is pretty slow on the story/plot department but I suppose the game is not for everyone.