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I see this in a couple of ways.
When you break it all down, Final Fantasy XIII was about a group of characters who were forced to complete this mission or they were fucked. And if they didn't complete it, they would still be fucked. If they were stopped by the enemy, they would be fucked as well.
Either complete the focus and turn into a crystal, fail your focus and turn into a Cie'th, or get captured by PSICOM and be shot to death. Those were the only options.
When your only options are doom and gloom, it only makes sense for the characters to freak out about it. And so throughout the journey, we saw how the main characters coped with the challenges of being a l'Cie.
However...
The back story stuff people were so confused about and had difficulty understanding was not really the focus and so therefore not really important. If it were, it would have been included in the story and explained very well. Instead, it was all thrown into the data log making it very difficult to understand key things throughout the story. You have to look those things up and nobody should have to do that.
I think the game makes it pretty clear that the story is about the characters themselves and how they deal with being l'Cie's. That I think is not difficult to understand. Everything else about the game is cause it's all half-assed and not explained very well. Simply bad storytelling.
When you break it all down, Final Fantasy XIII was about a group of characters who were forced to complete this mission or they were fucked. And if they didn't complete it, they would still be fucked. If they were stopped by the enemy, they would be fucked as well.
Either complete the focus and turn into a crystal, fail your focus and turn into a Cie'th, or get captured by PSICOM and be shot to death. Those were the only options.
When your only options are doom and gloom, it only makes sense for the characters to freak out about it. And so throughout the journey, we saw how the main characters coped with the challenges of being a l'Cie.
However...
The back story stuff people were so confused about and had difficulty understanding was not really the focus and so therefore not really important. If it were, it would have been included in the story and explained very well. Instead, it was all thrown into the data log making it very difficult to understand key things throughout the story. You have to look those things up and nobody should have to do that.
I think the game makes it pretty clear that the story is about the characters themselves and how they deal with being l'Cie's. That I think is not difficult to understand. Everything else about the game is cause it's all half-assed and not explained very well. Simply bad storytelling.
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I watched my sister play through the game a little while back. She went in blind, and was intimidated by the abrupt media res introduction to the game, and the poor handling of exposition, but she generally followed what was happening, including the jargon terms.
Then the end of the game occurred. She professed to me she had no idea what purportedly happened. Why were they even acquiescing to the villain's desire to fight Orphan and kill him anyway? How were Lightning, Sazh, Snow and Hope reverted to normal? How and why did their Focus change? Why were they de-crystallised, and how? How did Fang and Vanille know that Ragnarok - an engine of destruction - would be able to save them, and in the way it did? I had to shrug my shoulders and tell her, without revealing the little FFXIII-2 spoiler that Etro did it, that the characters simply believed hard enough in hope and friendship.
And looking back at that ending, I firmly believe it is the one time that FFXIII's story is ever genuinely a struggle to comprehend. Would differing mindsets among players be a factor too? Would a Japanese player be more naturally inclined to expect anime ideas of hope and friendship overcoming the darkest of odds, compared to a western gamer who may be more inclined to expect a more logical conclusion? Thematically it is also bizarre. They seemingly accept their predetermined fate by killing Orphan...only to inexplicably defy it moments later through no tangible agency of their own.
Am I even making any sense here anymore? >.>
Then the end of the game occurred. She professed to me she had no idea what purportedly happened. Why were they even acquiescing to the villain's desire to fight Orphan and kill him anyway? How were Lightning, Sazh, Snow and Hope reverted to normal? How and why did their Focus change? Why were they de-crystallised, and how? How did Fang and Vanille know that Ragnarok - an engine of destruction - would be able to save them, and in the way it did? I had to shrug my shoulders and tell her, without revealing the little FFXIII-2 spoiler that Etro did it, that the characters simply believed hard enough in hope and friendship.
And looking back at that ending, I firmly believe it is the one time that FFXIII's story is ever genuinely a struggle to comprehend. Would differing mindsets among players be a factor too? Would a Japanese player be more naturally inclined to expect anime ideas of hope and friendship overcoming the darkest of odds, compared to a western gamer who may be more inclined to expect a more logical conclusion? Thematically it is also bizarre. They seemingly accept their predetermined fate by killing Orphan...only to inexplicably defy it moments later through no tangible agency of their own.
Am I even making any sense here anymore? >.>
Sort of making sense, haha.
And I agree. The game goes down a very strange road once the final hours come around. Instead of relating the mythos to the heroes and thinking of ways on how and why this affects humanity and the world---they rush you along to finish the game. No grand revelation of gods, the past, the world beyond the shell of Cocoon. Nothing.
Which of course gets a lot of flack because if the ending intended to be upbeat, you'd think they'd devote some time to logical solutions. But our heroes instead rush in and wing it.
And I don't blame them from a realistic stand-point (which is part of why I like the games), but it also doesn't make a lot of sense in a meta-level where the answer for them acting so realistically pressed for time, is that the people making the game just didn't think it through.
And I agree. The game goes down a very strange road once the final hours come around. Instead of relating the mythos to the heroes and thinking of ways on how and why this affects humanity and the world---they rush you along to finish the game. No grand revelation of gods, the past, the world beyond the shell of Cocoon. Nothing.
Which of course gets a lot of flack because if the ending intended to be upbeat, you'd think they'd devote some time to logical solutions. But our heroes instead rush in and wing it.
And I don't blame them from a realistic stand-point (which is part of why I like the games), but it also doesn't make a lot of sense in a meta-level where the answer for them acting so realistically pressed for time, is that the people making the game just didn't think it through.
I played FF13 a couple of times and I still cant understand the final part of the game ,especially after the Barthandelus fight in Oerba
Also the ending was confusing as well
In my opinion Toriyama should take a break ,with storytelling masterpieces like the FF13 trilogy and FFX-2 its rediculous that SE still trusts him for big projects
Also the ending was confusing as well
In my opinion Toriyama should take a break ,with storytelling masterpieces like the FF13 trilogy and FFX-2 its rediculous that SE still trusts him for big projects
