mizu-kitsu
[10] Knight
I'm probably mistaken, but I look like he falls BECAUSE of the summon... But I will try your method too seems nifty.
Final Fantasy XIII
- Thread starter Alan-ere
- Start date
I'm probably mistaken, but I look like he falls BECAUSE of the summon... But I will try your method too seems nifty.
gamewizard108
[01] Neophyte
Only the ones with the right and left leg as an attack target can fall during a summon.
Jaxel
Administrator
So when the reviews for this game started coming out, I was hearing things along the lines of "it plays too much like a japanese rpg". Sure, they weren't saying exactly that, but thats what it sounded like. So I brushed off the negative reviews as people complaining that a japanese rpg was too "japanese rpg-ey" for them. But now its half a year after the game came out and I finally got my hands on it. And now what do I think? WTF. This is by far the worst "core" Final Fantasy game I've ever played. Which is really a shame, as Square is coming off of FF12, which is one of the best games in the series. I used to make a joke that if a game by Square isn't made by Tetsuya Nomura, its probably crap. This game has turned that joke into reality.
Let me put this out there, right now I am only up to Taejin's Tower, and I feel like the story has barely moved, and yet I have another feeling that the game is close to an end. Don't get me wrong, the story is by no means bad; its actually one of the more logical stories that a Final Fantasy game has ever had. The main character Hope (yes, don't kid yourself, he is clearly the main character) is the most well rounded and developed character in any game I've ever played. His actions, his feelings, and even his melancholy melodrama is all founded in the basis of reality. I see his actions and think "yeah, I could see a sane person in real life acting this way". The problem is that you spend the entirety of the game running, and it only changes from that late in the game.
But really, the major problem with this game is the pacing and difficulty. I was talking with KDZ about the differences between Prototype and InFamous the other day. In InFamous, you start out weak, but as the story progresses you get stronger and eventually become a bad ass. In Prototype, you're a bad ass out of the gate and start kicking ass and ignoring names. But I prefer InFamous, I like the sense of achievement, that I'm making progress and thats firmly displayed by my growth from weak to strong. The problem with FF13 is none of this. Instead of fighting to get strong, it feels more like you are fighting only so that you don't get outpaced by the enemies. You don't feel like you are getting comparatively stronger compared to the rest of the game.
Now I love a hard game; Demon's Souls is my 2009 Game of the Year. But in Demon's Souls, when you die you knew exactly why and you knew it was your fault; there was no semblance of luck. In FF13 the majority of the time you die, its complete luck and happenstance. Games today have a sense of freedom; I'm not talking about linearity, I'm talking about the choice to play the game how you want to play it. In FF13, you must play exactly as it's designed, you can rarely deviate from a single choice of tactic to win some of the harder battles in the game. You must conform, or die. Not to mention battles seem to be balanced expecting you to get preemptive strike, otherwise even some of the random battles in the game are excruciatingly difficult.
I probably wouldn't mind the difficulty if the game was a bit more fun. However this game is not an traditional japanese RPG at all; this game is what you call a "Rouge-Like". There are no towns, and no semblance of life or society except in cut scenes. This is dungeon after dungeon after dungeon. Except for the Central Expanse in Gran Pulse, every single zone in the game is a dungeon. Rouge-likes are not a popular genre because in general, dungeons are very boring and repetitive. The fatiguing nature of a dungeon is usually offset with downtime in wide open areas, and towns; something this game doesn't have. So in general the game just feels exhausting.
Positives:
Negatives:
Now I don't think I'm nitpicking here. These are core fundamental problems with the game's design. Just like how I say anyone who likes Tales of Symphonia or Tales of the Abyss is someone who hasn't played any other (re: better) Tales Games; I feel like anyone who likes this game must be pretty inexperienced in the rouge-like department. This is NOT a traditional Japanese RPG; this is a rouge-like and there are many better rouge-likes out there... The .hack//GU series for example. A major problem here is that unless you are playing Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon, you don't walk into Final Fantasy expecting a rouge-like experience.
Let me put this out there, right now I am only up to Taejin's Tower, and I feel like the story has barely moved, and yet I have another feeling that the game is close to an end. Don't get me wrong, the story is by no means bad; its actually one of the more logical stories that a Final Fantasy game has ever had. The main character Hope (yes, don't kid yourself, he is clearly the main character) is the most well rounded and developed character in any game I've ever played. His actions, his feelings, and even his melancholy melodrama is all founded in the basis of reality. I see his actions and think "yeah, I could see a sane person in real life acting this way". The problem is that you spend the entirety of the game running, and it only changes from that late in the game.
But really, the major problem with this game is the pacing and difficulty. I was talking with KDZ about the differences between Prototype and InFamous the other day. In InFamous, you start out weak, but as the story progresses you get stronger and eventually become a bad ass. In Prototype, you're a bad ass out of the gate and start kicking ass and ignoring names. But I prefer InFamous, I like the sense of achievement, that I'm making progress and thats firmly displayed by my growth from weak to strong. The problem with FF13 is none of this. Instead of fighting to get strong, it feels more like you are fighting only so that you don't get outpaced by the enemies. You don't feel like you are getting comparatively stronger compared to the rest of the game.
Now I love a hard game; Demon's Souls is my 2009 Game of the Year. But in Demon's Souls, when you die you knew exactly why and you knew it was your fault; there was no semblance of luck. In FF13 the majority of the time you die, its complete luck and happenstance. Games today have a sense of freedom; I'm not talking about linearity, I'm talking about the choice to play the game how you want to play it. In FF13, you must play exactly as it's designed, you can rarely deviate from a single choice of tactic to win some of the harder battles in the game. You must conform, or die. Not to mention battles seem to be balanced expecting you to get preemptive strike, otherwise even some of the random battles in the game are excruciatingly difficult.
I probably wouldn't mind the difficulty if the game was a bit more fun. However this game is not an traditional japanese RPG at all; this game is what you call a "Rouge-Like". There are no towns, and no semblance of life or society except in cut scenes. This is dungeon after dungeon after dungeon. Except for the Central Expanse in Gran Pulse, every single zone in the game is a dungeon. Rouge-likes are not a popular genre because in general, dungeons are very boring and repetitive. The fatiguing nature of a dungeon is usually offset with downtime in wide open areas, and towns; something this game doesn't have. So in general the game just feels exhausting.
Positives:
- Linear Story - I like it when a story is linear, especially in RPGs. When an RPG has too many different outcomes I end up wondering "why bother telling a story?", "why bother creating this characters when we can change their personalities and attributes at will?".
- Characters - Characters are well rounded and generally grounded in reality. Voice acting is also excellent, with the exception of Vanille, who's personality doesn't translate well from Japanese.
- Job System - I HATED the sphere grid. It inherently violated the linear story model I stated above. You could freely change every characters core attributes and I didn't like that. This new job system keeps every character in line with their core design.
- Paradigms - Many will see paradigms as a new thing, but I see it as nothing more than an advancement of the combat mode system from the 2D Tales Games (the 2D Tales Games were the GOOD Tales Games, the 3D games suck).
Negatives:
- Paradigms - The only issue with the Paradigm system is that it arbitrarily creates boundaries that a character cant even do simple things like "Cure" without completely changing their class. A character not not attack and heal at the same time.
- Music - Since Nobuo Uematsu left Square, they have been searching for a new lead composer. I thought they had found it in FF12 with Hitoshi Sakimoto. Yet for some reason, FF13 is composed by Masashi Hamauzu. The result is completely bizarre, random and out of place music throughout the entire game. We don't even have any classic Final Fantasy Fanfare or Prologue.
- Difficulty - I read an interesting article in Game Informer the other day. It talks about the sense of accomplishment of beating a game on the hardest difficulty, versus the fun factor of playing it on the easiest difficulty. The problem with this game is even when I win a battle, I don't have that sense of accomplishment. All I can think is "that should have been easier". Battles like Vanille's Eidolon are just a big "fuck you" to gamers.
- Grind - This game is a GRIND. Every battle takes 5 minutes, and the game is nothing more than unavoidable battle after another. I don't mind grinding, but when the game FORCES you to do it, you can get fatigued very easily. Hell, I got platinum in White Knight Chronicles (people say it takes 500-1000 hours) and I enjoyed almost every minute of it. But this game is just a mess. At 30 hours in, if it wasn't for me being a completionist and the game not being mine, I would probably quit right now.
Now I don't think I'm nitpicking here. These are core fundamental problems with the game's design. Just like how I say anyone who likes Tales of Symphonia or Tales of the Abyss is someone who hasn't played any other (re: better) Tales Games; I feel like anyone who likes this game must be pretty inexperienced in the rouge-like department. This is NOT a traditional Japanese RPG; this is a rouge-like and there are many better rouge-likes out there... The .hack//GU series for example. A major problem here is that unless you are playing Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon, you don't walk into Final Fantasy expecting a rouge-like experience.
MammothMan
WR B, NSS A+B, GS KK, W!, 4KK, 33B, GSB
Honestly, you aren't far enough through the story of the game yet. The monsters become much easier, the sense of accomplishment goes way up, especially if you can kill the giant turtle iguanas. There are 65 different monster missions you can do, thats a ton of side quests, this doesn't count gate missions, the main story, etc etc.
As far as the linear way the game moves. You are correct about that, to a point. The story aspect will push you right down the tunnel with no way out. However, that's most of the beginning of the game. I see the first 30 hours as a tutorial, a way to prepare you for everything Gran Pulse has to offer, as well as everything near the end of the game and in game+. You need experience in how to swap paradigms. You need to strengthen each one even to beat the final boss. Every final boss is hard and this one is no exception the first time through.
You need to get ultima and omega weapon upgrades, something that is difficult yet not impossible to do. You need to balance out someone like Lightning between being both a healer and a ravager, because face it, she sucks as a commando. You have to do this with your whole party, which in turn helps makes killing pesky large things like the behemoth lords, a 28 second fight. The game has a ton of things in it that you really haven't seen to much of if you're focusing on following the primary story arc.
Oh and they didn't create towns in this game because creating whole towns in HD was going to push them months past their deadline. Did they take the quick way out? Yea, but eh I can handle it if they took out a bunch of people that say the same line every time you talk to them and only have 1 shop in the whole place with a limited selection of items.
As far as the linear way the game moves. You are correct about that, to a point. The story aspect will push you right down the tunnel with no way out. However, that's most of the beginning of the game. I see the first 30 hours as a tutorial, a way to prepare you for everything Gran Pulse has to offer, as well as everything near the end of the game and in game+. You need experience in how to swap paradigms. You need to strengthen each one even to beat the final boss. Every final boss is hard and this one is no exception the first time through.
You need to get ultima and omega weapon upgrades, something that is difficult yet not impossible to do. You need to balance out someone like Lightning between being both a healer and a ravager, because face it, she sucks as a commando. You have to do this with your whole party, which in turn helps makes killing pesky large things like the behemoth lords, a 28 second fight. The game has a ton of things in it that you really haven't seen to much of if you're focusing on following the primary story arc.
Oh and they didn't create towns in this game because creating whole towns in HD was going to push them months past their deadline. Did they take the quick way out? Yea, but eh I can handle it if they took out a bunch of people that say the same line every time you talk to them and only have 1 shop in the whole place with a limited selection of items.
Impending_Doom66
[09] Warrior
Holy crap Jaxel. I don't even know where to begin with that crap response, but if battles are taking you five minutes then you are doing it wrong.Very rarely should any battle exceed a minute. And lol at your FFXII comment. FFXII had an awful story, a weak soundtrack with the exception of a few songs, and, outside one or two, some of the most forgetable characters in the series.