Final Fantasy XIII Non-Spoiler Thread

[Alex]

Good answer

 

[Cat Rage Room]

uhhhhh

The whole game is completely linear until halfway through [approximately 20 hours].

There are hardly any towns.

The party is always fixed. The whole game just repeats the movie-battle sequence over and over [In fact the progression is closer to movie-run-battle-run-movie-boss-movie-run-battle…].

There are rather a lot of movies.

Moving around is like a long marathon.

The whole game system is just a clone of FF10.

You can’t flee battles [You can’t avoid most battles either as there is no sneaking past enemies, including weak ones].

Your party is completely healed after each battle.

If the main character in your party dies it is game over [There are only ever 3 characters in battle, often less, and often fixed].

The best tactic is almost always endlessly attacking. There is next to no strategy or skill involved.

The summons’ transformation scenes are a joke [i.e. Odin turning into a horse].

The story is rubbish… [Spoilers omitted, but complaints centre on Snow’s constant and cringe inducing insistence that he is a hero and will “protect” whatever it is the antagonists are menacing this time]

Shopping is only done at “online” shops on save points, with no proper shops to be found.

However, this doesn’t matter as you hardly ever get any money [and you can never buy anything more powerful than what you already looted].

There have been next to no changes from the demo.

The status screen displays no real information.

There are only 8 items usable in combat [For that matter, there are hardly any weapons or accessories, and the “crafting” system mostly consists of spending drops to upgrade their 2 stats].

There are no levels.

 

[Super Mario]

Yeah Tenny, go to the bloody RP already, you're killing us by the day!

 

[Bex]

@mog
where is this source from man?

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Quoted from another forum I visit.

 

[Bex]

Obv they have the bottom line in judging games.
I just want the 3 months to be over so I can see the game for myself and form my own opinion.

But it better not be crap.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Obv they have the bottom line in judging games.
I just want the 3 months to be over so I can see the game for myself and form my own opinion.

But it better not be crap.

Oh, I'm not saying that opinion is definitive. But it is an opinion. Just something to think about.

 

[Super Mario]

I just want to see it for my own eyes! And mog remove that avatar for god's sake.

 

[Alex]

The whole game system is just a clone of FF10.

Judging from this particular brand of intelligent criticism I'm not too worried.

Besides I didn't read anything in that post that really put me off. Getting healed after every battle sounds like a sweet deal.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

This is what jumped at me that I don't like

There are rather a lot of movies.

The whole game is completely linear until halfway through [approximately 20 hours].

There are hardly any towns.

The best tactic is almost always endlessly attacking. There is next to no strategy or skill involved.

Shopping is only done at “online” shops on save points, with no proper shops to be found.

 

[Alex]

All Final Fantasies are nearly completely linear until halfway through though :/

It might just be me missing something, but I genuinely don't get why everybody is taking this as a criticism.

When I play a Final Fantasy I want it to be a linear experience, its not an Assassin's Creed/GTA/make-your-own-story kind of affair. Final Fantasy games are meant to grab you by the balls and drag you through the story it's way.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

All Final Fantasies are nearly completely linear until halfway through though :/

He may be saying its extremely linear even relative to a Final Fantasy, though. Like Grandia linear. Have you ever played Grandia? There is literally NOTHING to do EVER except advance the story until the last 2 hours of the game. Stuff like Fort Condor, Chocobo Hot and Cold, Gold Saucer, Esper gathering, going back into towns you've been to before, Card Games, etc etc are completely out of the question in super linear Grandia like games because all you're doing ever is advancing the story on rails.

You see what I mean?

 

[Cthulhu]

Gah. On one side, I don't give a fuck, on the other, I might even get a PS3 or eksbawks within the next ten years and play this. Thus, not sure whether I'll just be a bum and read spoilers (or hints to spoilers) (or responses to spoilers), or gtfo the thread.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

I'm definitely going to buy the game and give it a chance. However, I'm always willing to listen to the other side and criticism instead of regurgitating songs of praise for it over and over again, no matter how much I'm personally looking forward to it.

 

[Alex]

He may be saying its extremely linear even relative to a Final Fantasy, though. Like Grandia linear. Have you ever played Grandia? There is literally NOTHING to do EVER except advance the story until the last 2 hours of the game. Stuff like Fort Condor, Chocobo Hot and Cold, Gold Saucer, Esper gathering, going back into towns you've been to before, Card Games, etc etc are completely out of the question in super linear Grandia like games because all you're doing ever is advancing the story on rails.

You see what I mean?

Ah I see what you mean yeah. I can see how some people would be put off by that.

But without seeing these criticisms within the context of the game then I can't really judge, for all I know all these things work perfectly to the game's advantage when you're actually sitting down playing it. It all sounds a bit sensationalist:/

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Yeah, that's why I'm having an open mind about it. Never really know until you try for yourself.

 

[Cthulhu]

I actually like my games to be somewhat linear. It allows for much smoother storytelling and higher quality content. Call of Duty is an example, it's linear as fuck, but that allows it to guide the player though its story in a much more filmic fashion than would be possible if they just let the player roam about freely. imo, of course.

 

[DrakeClawfang]

Spoiler

After viewing the spoilers, I think its safe to say, I'm not buying this game. Lol

Spoiler

It still won't miss you.

I actually like my games to be somewhat linear. It allows for much smoother storytelling and higher quality content. Call of Duty is an example, it's linear as fuck, but that allows it to guide the player though its story in a much more filmic fashion than would be possible if they just let the player roam about freely. imo, of course.

The key is a balance between linear and non-linear. FF6's World of Ruin is completely open ended, you could do whatever quests you like whenever you like. But this isn't great, because at times I felt like "now what?" - without a clear direction I wasn't always sure what to do next. Not to mention many of the quests (Gogo, Cyan's dream, the ancient castle) are things you won't know about unless you're told. Really, how many of us would have found the ancient castle without some sort of guide or FAQ?

On the other hand, when it's completely linear it's restricting. FF8 is totally linear until you get the Garden fly-ship, and even then there's just the Cetra Ruins and (I think you can do it at that point) Shumi Village, it isn't until you snag the airship that you really get access to the sidequests.

So yeah, you have to balance it right, too non-linear and the game will lack a sense of direction, too linear and the game will seem confining when you have nothing to do but play right through the main story.

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

All Final Fantasies are nearly completely linear until halfway through though :/

It might just be me missing something, but I genuinely don't get why everybody is taking this as a criticism.

When I play a Final Fantasy I want it to be a linear experience, its not an Assassin's Creed/GTA/make-your-own-story kind of affair. Final Fantasy games are meant to grab you by the balls and drag you through the story it's way.

Most JRPGs are like this. Look at the Mother series or something where there's only really one ending. The only difference between it and the Persona series are chances for multiple endings.

 

[Tennyo]

I'm all about the experience of the story, you know? I wand to be surprised, and I love guessing what's going to happen next. This is why I don't like spoilers. If I knew what was going to happen I would loose out on the experience.

Also, as far as being linear goes, I don't do side-quests and such until well over 20 hours in usually. I'm in it for the story mostly. Sure, side-quests are fun but if there aren't any in the beginning of the game I don't really care, because I probably won't do them anyway unless I know that they won't be available later.

 

[Super Mario]

That's a nice two cents Tenny. Also, how about a Cool Friend Story over at destrillians? ;D

 

[Alex]

Ha! Ha! Harassment

 

[Super Mario]

I BEG YOU! A COOL FRIEND STORY! D:


also I'm not touching spoilers now that I'm eating fresh Eclairs.

 

[Cannon_Fodder]

I'm really happy to see that I'm not the only one who prefers linearity over an open-world story. Games like Fallout do the open-world thing, and they do it well. I want a FF game to tell me a good story with strategic combat, and I'll have to wait to play it to see if I like the combat, so...

I have one (stupid) question though. I hear that the party is fixed usually, that I'm cool with. But can I choose my own party of three at the end of the game for missions and such? Or is the group parted into two parties of three I have to decide between?

 

[shenron118]

I have one (stupid) question though. I hear that the party is fixed usually, that I'm cool with. But can I choose my own party of three at the end of the game for missions and such? Or is the group parted into two parties of three I have to decide between?

You can choose your own party towards the end, and, if memory serves, you can change your party members freely from the start screen.