Final Fantasy XIII, you are my only hope...

Nobody can deny that how nice each entry into the FF series looks. Nobody can deny that the CGI cutscenes contain some of the nicest set pieces on a console. I can't say i've really cared for the music after Uematsu left though, not trying to be a Nobueo fanboy but i just really enjoyed his music. Mitsuda is actually my favourite composer.

But if your looking for production values and mind blowing graphics/CGI, then final fantasy is still a great place to look. However if your looking for a compelling story with meaningful characters, i can't really say the same. But hey to each his own.
 
i disagree, the story has always been good, and at least FFX didn't have a "and they all lived happily ever after" style ending

to be honest, Story, Music and Characters are what make a Final Fantasy game, gameplay is kinda next to last on my list for this series :p
 
Fair enough, like i said to each his own, i agree with gameplay though thats always been the last thing on my list when it comes to a FF game, hell any JRPG for that matter :p

I'll agree that it was good that FFX didn't have a everythign is rosy ending (although that was successfully ****** up in that ****** sequel X-2), but then a lot of non-FF games have melancholy or sad endings (shadow hearts 1 being a very good example of this). Also as i said earlier X borrowed a lot from wild arms 2, but then i suspose it could be said what doesn't borrow from other sources these days. Ah well.
 
Kotaku has published a detailed review of FFXIII. Unforetunately, it's by Tim Rogers, so it's full of inane, unnecessary attempts at humour and ridiculous, nonsense babbling. Very small parts of the review are actually funny though, which is odd for Rogers because usually absolutely 0% of whatever he writes is funny or imaginative or well-written in any way. That said, it's an interesting (if laborious; I gave up about 2/3rds through) read and highlights a lot of what's to expect in FFXIII. All of it sounds very good to me; the review has made me very excited indeed. Roll on March :]

Oh, and in the context of the debate about the removal of towns, I think Mr. Rogers makes a decent point:
No towns means that the story doesn't ever stop and stick. It means no wandering around a town, talking to every NPC until the least likely one gives you the perfect piece of information you need to proceed. No towns means that no caves to the north of town that are locked and inaccessible until you talk to that least likely NPC who tells you that there's a cave to the north full of monsters. With no towns, all actions in the game are seamlessly linked to the story. We are moving forward. Why are we moving forward? Because the enemy is behind us. Why are they behind us? Because they don't like us. Or: Because we miraculously managed to escape in the first place.
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A quote from the review:

Cut scene — Would you like to save? — Cut-scene — Walk forward five minutes, fight some monsters — Save point — Cut scene — Boss — Cut-scene — Would you like to save?
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Insomnia is bad.
 
Lupus said:
You guys argued about this, ON CHRISTMAS? Holy **** you guys are stupid, heartless creatures. Enjoy your coal.
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The countryside-roads in my county of Tippearary, here in the mid-south of Ireland, were dreadfully icy and so we could not drive anywhere yesterday and as such I became rather bored and resorted to internet forums :]

Aion said:
A quote from the review:

Cut scene — Would you like to save? — Cut-scene — Walk forward five minutes, fight some monsters — Save point — Cut scene — Boss — Cut-scene — Would you like to save?
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He does specify that is just what happens for the first few hours of the game. And he was overwhelmingly positive about FFXIII, in fairness. It seems to have done everything right, maybe with a few bumps along the way, but certainly it hasn't done anything 'wrong' :]
 
Good god, if some of you are still whining about the linearity thing, then wait for Versus XIII. Nomura has promised a more tradtional-style FF with a world map and dungeons.

Otherwise, FFXIII is a different type of FF experience.

Lupus said:
You guys argued about this, ON CHRISTMAS? Holy **** you guys are stupid, heartless creatures. Enjoy your coal.
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Well, it's a shame that CG and Aion haven't kissed and made up ;-; So much for Christmas miracles, eh?
 
ilmaestro said:
Oh yeah, I got this now.

It's awesome.
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What did you do with your FFXIV campaign code? I think I'm going to keep mine and hope that the secret item isn't the XIV equivalent of a statue of an Orc for my XIV moghouse, but the PS3 beta is tempting too.

It's a cruel freebie this time.

R
 
I'd appreciate it if you post some impressions, Rui, I know you're not the type to get swept up in the hype and blindly lie to yourself about it being a "good game" I'd take your opinion better than a fair few on the internet.
 
Honestly I'm not that far in yet so I don't want to say too much. Mine only arrived on Saturday after festive family obligations.

My current thoughts:

1. A lot of the stuff they've removed (manually talking to townspeople, fiddling with shops) are things that were sort of tedious anyway after a while, so there's less fiddling and micromanagement than in some of the previous games. I miss some of it for nostalgia's sake, but it's not like XIII existing made every previous JRPG disappear. I can accept what they're trying to do here.
2. The music so far has been underwhelming; I'm quite surprised. I'll reserve judgement on this until later as the current zone's music is an improvement over some of the earlier BGM. It's not bad music, just very different to what I expected.
3. In terms of presentation it's obviously slick. Love the voice acting (Hope's voice reminds me of my favourite actor even though it's someone else) and some of the characters have good dialogue. I like Lightning. I don't like Snow.
4. The battle pace is quick, which I like. It's quite easy where I am at the moment so advanced strategy discussion will have to wait. It reminds me of a blend between X, X-2 and XII. I think people who disliked the last few FF games will have similar gripes here (I'm not one of them).
5. I have no idea where the plot is going at this stage. Can I come back to this when I've played more :) ?
6. Sazh is my favourite character at the moment in terms of personality.

Overall I'm enjoying it and rushing home after work to play more, so I think that's a good sign.

R
 
Thanks, Rui :] It all sounds very good. I'm a little disappointed to hear that about the music, though. Fingers crossed it gets better later on (and you must have a long way to go if you only started playing it on Saturday?).

Lupus said:
I'd appreciate it if you post some impressions, Rui, I know you're not the type to get swept up in the hype and blindly lie to yourself about it being a "good game" I'd take your opinion better than a fair few on the internet.
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It's plainly obvious that you should be more worried about the type of person that is blinkered with hatred because of how different FFXIII is to the other games in the series.
 
Glad to see you're liking it then to an extent, Rui, hopefully I can do the same in a few months time, experiencing it will also add up to my final opinion of the game. Surprised you seem to like Sazh though, he does seem better than Snow at least. Also, when you get further into the game can you give any comments on Vanille? Honestly, no one talks about her, all the character comments have been on the others except her.

@ CitizenGeek: It's not about hating it though, it's about being honest to yourself. Haven't you ever been hyped or wanted a game or to see a movie so badly only to find out the final result is not what you expected? I try to think "Yeah, that was good" but after a while you just realize... it wasn't.
 
Lupus said:
Also, when you get further into the game can you give any comments on Vanille? Honestly, no one talks about her, all the character comments have been on the others except her.
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Ah, I'm quite surprised to hear this, actually. She's in the game right from the start, and is lovely.

I believe the most constructive comment I've been able to offer on her so far though is "Vanille moeruuuuuuuu :~~", as I'm struggling to get over my love for her enough to actually analyse her in any way fairly.
 
If you ask me what my favourite RPG would be probably I would say Final Fantasy 7, that maybe because of sentimental reason as being the first one I played, so I don't know if it fare judgement to give. But from there onwards it has been steady stream of disappointment for me with both Final Fantasy 8 & 10 both being big let downs after starting so well (have not played 9 or x2, or 12 just yet pass comment).

Its not the disappointment I felt with the games that I have trouble with its that they get all the attention and sales over other RPGS which I frankly think deserve more recognition. A title like Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call is woeful under recognised and deserve a next generation remake on ps3/xbox 360. It just seems people brainwashed by final fantasy they don't bother to try out any other series out. It seem a bit sad that square can keep releasing mediocre final fantasy and still sell millions. While a title from Shin Megami who gets critical praise won't get enough sales to warrant a releases on ps3/xbox 360. Dooming its future to be produce on cheaper formats like DS/PSP.
 
Dave said:
If you ask me what my favourite RPG would be probably I would say Final Fantasy 7, that maybe because of sentimental reason as being the first one I played, so I don't know if it fare judgement to give. But from there onwards it has been steady stream of disappointment for me with both Final Fantasy 8 & 10 both being big let downs after starting so well (have not played 9 or x2, or 12 just yet pass comment).

Its not the disappointment I felt with the games that I have trouble with its that they get all the attention and sales over other RPGS which I frankly think deserve more recognition. A title like Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call is woeful under recognised and deserve a next generation remake on ps3/xbox 360. It just seems people brainwashed by final fantasy they don't bother to try out any other series out. It seem a bit sad that square can keep releasing mediocre final fantasy and still sell millions. While a title from Shin Megami who gets critical praise won't get enough sales to warrant a releases on ps3/xbox 360. Dooming its future to be produce on cheaper formats like DS/PSP.
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That's a very wide statement there. I've played FF games since the SNES as a kid and the only modern one I've not finished (not counting 13 as I don't have it yet) is 12 and the CC ones. I personally play as many RPG's as I can get my hands on though (no, I've not played shin megami as the story dosn't interest me). If you'd played the earlier SNES ones as a child like I did maybe you'd realize why we atleast give new FF games a -try-. :) (And personally, 8 is my favorite, and 6, and 9 was also very good but you need to have an open heart to enjoy it as it's a bit softer).
 
8 is one of my favourites too. I loved the story & the characters, & the flexibility of the junction system was fantastic, though I found that as magic had been changed to a glorified form of items & their quantity guaranteed my good stats, I never used magic.

Completed FF8 a few days ago actually. First time I did, though I got the game on release & played through to disc 4 & stopped. :O Replaying all my FFs over this past year & the next.
 
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