Thoughts on the XIII games

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Mark

Yevonite
Oct 6, 2013
36
10
29
Scotland
Trivial? I guess my post was a waste of time, as I think fighting as efficiently as possible is fun. Why would I want to slog through a battle and do nothing to make it more fun when I have the option to?
Because again, that "option" is trivial at best. If your idea of fun is cancelling some of your attacks (that, by the way, you've already stacked up if you've went into abilties manually) to save about two seconds of time then I don't know what to tell you.

But if you're set on disliking the Auto-battle feature, than there's nothing I can do or say to change your mind. Ah, well. I shouldn't be surprised anymore. :)
Likewise. :)
 

Leon Aether

ShinRa SOLDIER
Sep 26, 2013
177
68
33
Corfu, Greece
@Mark
He may have stopped whinning then, but he was still a bit over-emotional little boy (I kind of rolled my eyed when he wanted to kill Snow, which, as much as I would want that to happen, I know he could never do) and when he did stop whinning he turned into the typical "I'm all grown up!" boy. "I need to be stronger!". "I can do this!", "Let me take point, their guns are worthless against my boomerang!". It's cliche and it annoyed me.
He is just a 14 year old boy, who lost his mother, his father was never there for him, and he became a l'Cie meaning he had the constant fear of becoming a Cie'th someday... And yet his determination to fight and stand on his own feet, to vanish his fears is a cliche and annoying behavior? I really can't understand that. But oh well. The way how we see things is entirely subjective and of course your opinion is welcome!
 
Likes: Sapientia

Mark

Yevonite
Oct 6, 2013
36
10
29
Scotland
@Mark


He is just a 14 year old boy, who lost his mother
I'm sorry, this may seem heartless but the fact that he lost his mother meant little to me as it happened at the start of the game when they had no development. If it was in the middle of the game (or moreso if he was actually real, lol) I would possibly feel sorry for him.

his determination to fight and stand on his own feet, to vanish his fears is a cliche and annoying behavior
When presented in a cliche and annoying way, yes. See: quotes. I think that if the dialouge was better I may have been able to take him more seriously. They just need to fire Watanabe.
 

Varnis

Balamb Garden Freshman
Oct 9, 2013
26
10
30
Australia
Me being the kind of gamer I am, where I've got literally 100's of games I've yet to play...I appreciated XIII's Linearity as it didn't try to throw me off course to a 5-hour grind-fest or anything like that, It's one of my top favorite Final Fantasy main games, and Also I appreciate a 'Faster' paced combat system...kept me on my toes the whole game.
 

Griffin 325

Stiltzkin's Apprentice
Oct 9, 2013
11
2
32
Chicago, Illinios
While I like Lightning and all, I personally think Fang would be better suited and more interesting in the savior position than Lightning. She just seems more human and less stiff. Also I really want to see her fight Caius. lol
 

Griffin 325

Stiltzkin's Apprentice
Oct 9, 2013
11
2
32
Chicago, Illinios
I'm starting to wonder if the battle systems used in FFXIII and FFXIII-2 could have had a further mechanic built in that allowed the player to determine - even if it's in the most minimal, passive way - the positions of party members in a fight.

It's irritating when certain characters who may be relatively low on HP, and are not Sentinels, wander stupidly towards the line of fire when an enemy casts an area effect ability. That's the most annoying part of the battle system, because there's no reason why someone like Serah or Vanille absent-mindedly walk right into the enemy's face, instead of sticking I dunno, farther back. It's even more annoying when the more vulnerable characters are hit, but someone who can afford to tank the hit points has narrowly avoided it because he or she is fortunate enough to be just outside the attack radius.

FFXIII's OST is definitely one of the better points about the game. I maintain that "Blinded by Light" is one of the addictive tracks to listen to - and I have to love it, because I've been loving it since 2006. I think "Dust to Dust" is my personal standout from the soundtrack because of its powerful, soothing ethereal nature that compliments the location of Oerba - probably the best looking area in the FFXIII games thus far in my opinion...for some reason.

However, I never grew to appreciate FFXIII-2's soundtrack as a whole. I don't doubt that there are some gems here and there, but sans Caius's theme (which I think starts off well, then just falls flat after 35 seconds into something almost Disney-like?), most of them seem oddly forgettable. It's one of these times when you have such a strong recollection of what you didn't like about the soundtrack that it spoils the overall product because it's all you can remember from then on. I never found FFXIII-2's soundtrack to be a beneficiary of a more experimental approach, because to me, I just see an incoherent mix of styles that don't fit. Like, why is there that rap track early on in the Bresha Ruins?
I have similar feelings about XIII-2's soundtrack. I believe it would have benefited from less vocal bgm(though I believe vocal pieces worked very well in New Bodhum, Sunleth Waterscape, and Archelyte Steppe), a better boss battle theme, and a more unified synthesizer( Hamauzu's pieces sound better quality than the others' pieces, excluding "Caius' Theme", because of this. Lol They should have had him arrange their music.) Of course, this is just my opinion. Nevertheless, I did enjoy lots of its music after it grew on me.
 

Storm2356

Clan Centurio Member
Oct 4, 2013
136
62
World B
While I like Lightning and all, I personally think Fang would be better suited and more interesting in the savior position than Lightning. She just seems more human and less stiff. Also I really want to see her fight Caius. lol
While I can see your reasoning, the main reason Lightning is getting the game mostly to herself is so they can flesh out her character and seemingly make her more relateable.
 

Kagari

神羅カンパニー社長
Administrator
Site Staff
Jul 25, 2013
255
192
37
United States
www.novacrystallis.com
While I can see your reasoning, the main reason Lightning is getting the game mostly to herself is so they can flesh out her character and seemingly make her more relateable.
I don't think that's really the case. They outright said she won't really have any emotions now so how does that make her relateable?
 

Storm2356

Clan Centurio Member
Oct 4, 2013
136
62
World B
I don't think that's really the case. They outright said she won't really have any emotions now so how does that make her relateable?
I'm just going off of things they've apparently said, even if they really are contradicting themselves. Though, the way I'm interpreting it is that she doesn't feel any emotion about past events, even though I know I'm wrong.
 

Amicitia

Balamb Garden Freshman
Sep 26, 2013
19
13
She has emotions but she doesn't remember certain ones about past events, exactly as you said Storm. If recent news info are any indication of her actual situation
her being simply a tool for Bhunivelze in a negative way, because he's the one who did that to her after all,
then their plan is to rediscover her own character and humanity. That's going to be their way of making her relatable. How? Because the process should involve having a closer look or exploring her character even more, in a way that wasn't done in XIII. The interviews mentioned her vulnerable side (keep in mind in an emotional context) will be shown more for LR. I don't really see it as a contradiction, I think they're just implying that there will be character development for her.

If what's above is done and one still doesn't find her relatable, of course that's a matter of subjectiveness.
 
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I never finished Final Fantasy XIII and doubt I will any time soon. The linearity of the game didn't bother me, nor the lack of side quests (which is kind of the same thing), but I just felt the story overall failed to grip me. The only character I felt any kind of investment in was Hope, purely out of sympathy, but I do agree that he often was irritating. The others were either annoying (Snow) or simply bearable (Sazh, Lightning).

The game also spends way too much time with the main party separated--it's good in that it forces you to familiarize yourself with the paradigm system, but you're always waiting for everyone to reunite. That kind of suspense can work well, but for FFXIII, it fell flat. Beginning the game in media res is a really neat concept, but I don't feel it ever accomplished its purpose. From what I understand, the game was supposed to be a story of how the group's past intermingled, which the flashbacks did work well on in some respects, but other points just felt ridiculously contrived and needless (Sazh's son and Vanille & Fang). The story too seemed very aimless and meandering (which was reflected in the characters), and the script did nothing to help it. It's a chore to trudge through the areas which, beautiful as they are, I rarely cared to look at. I was just waiting for the story to take off , or some huge revelation, and continued to be disappointed. Maybe that was my own fault for coming into the game with expectations, but Final Fantasy is such a story & world driven franchise that FFXIII just seems incongruent. Even FFXII, which lacks the emotional backdrop of other FF titles, compensates by having an expansive, well-developed world with lots to do & explore.

There's no question that the game is, of course, beautiful to look at, but there's very little under the surface. I do think there were some really interesting concepts in the world but, as others have said, they chose to focus the cutscenes on the melodrama of unlikable characters and putting the lore onto the backburner (in menus). FFX's equally complex world works so well because we see it and learn about it through the vessel of Tidus; he asks questions and learns and so do we. We lack that introductory character in FFXIII, so catching up on the lore of the game (which is essential to appreciating the plot in any respect) is a daunting task.

I do think the gameplay was strong if it did have some problems. I'm told FFXIII-2 fixes a lot of them but again, I haven't even finished the first.

I also have to add that I'm really disappointed in the "dress up doll" features of LR. I haven't followed its development/news very closely, so it's very possible that the changing of outfits is well integrated into the story or gameplay (like in FFX-2), but as a feminist, the concept just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Nevermind that I doubt something like this would even be proposed in a game with a male protagonist, but it overall seems to be a fetishization of Lightning, rather than portraying her as an empowered female lead. Despite my opinions of FFXIII's story I find Lightning slightly appealing because she's so damned unfriendly. It was refreshing to see a female FF character that isn't blatant fan service, in outfit and in character (despite her being alongside Vanille who, probably one of the more interesting party members, was often objectified. Oh, plus Lightning's skirt/legs. Like really.).* But whatever semblance of portraying a female lead positively in FFXIII is lost in the fan service of letting the player play dress up with Lightning, and ultimately dictating her powers & abilities from her appearance. it's just sad to me that the first FF game to have a female lead (one that has been so widely advertised as such), and a largely female cast, simply reinforces a lot of the problems with gender in video games.

I'm not coming after FFXIII with pitchforks but Square really needs to move on. And I'll say the same thing about Versus if I decide to post about that. Even if I loved all the FFXIII titles I think that, at this point, I'd still want Square to move on and try something entirely new.

* This isn't to say that I dislike other FF females. Lulu, for example, has a clearly problematic wardrobe and I would say plays on a sexualized gothic fantasy (unfriendly hottie with a soft spot), but I adore her.