The story is much better paced to ease viewers in. XIII throws a bunch of made up words at you right at the beginning and you don't know what they mean, or who/what they are. X was told solely through the eyes of a foreigner so the writer can assume that the protagonist is clueless and everyone has to fill him in.
I mean, the only unconventional thing is
the concept of dreaming in X
. Everything else has a real life analogy. It's easier to relate to the story.
Ok, I don't know how GAF feels about strawpolls in comments but I've been too curious. So I made a poll asking if you've played XIII, what your experience was with XIII-2 (including an option for those who didn't play it).
So as I head off to bed I wanted to look at the current results. They are certainly interesting! An even split between:
Those who didn't like XIII, but liked XIII-2
Those who liked XIII, but didn't like XIII-2 (most surprising results to me)
Those who didn't like XIII, and didn't play XIII-2
When factoring in the players who liked both it seems that really for the most part people enjoyed XIII-2. Maybe those who haven't played it would actually enjoy it better than XIII.
Still, I wonder if more people who actually hated XIII were willing to give XIII-2 a shot than I thought...
FF10 has extremely bad ESL writing (like Tidus repeatedly saying "my old man" every sentence for paragraphs and paragraphs of dialogue) -- and yet I can't think of a single line in FF10 that comes across as poorly in English as the entirety of FF13's script. I would be extremely shocked if anyone who spoke English as a native language had decision making authority in the FF13 localization.
This for me. FFXIII was just full of restrictions, how far you could level up, which characters you could use, where you could go. If you didn't like what was currently on offer your only option was to keep moving down that corridor.
In the time i spent with 13, i found it just did everything worse then 10, both good(the core battle system from 10 was fine) and bad(...everything else). I would like the fact they basically added jobs back into 13, but they used what felt like a crappier and slower version of the sphere grid, with story based level caps. when i lost my save(maybe got about 10 or so hours in) I didn't even want to bother starting 13 over, which i have done before for a few other ff games... i tend to lose ff saves unusually often now that i think about it.
Wish they would have borrow more stuff from X-2 going forward... at least the combat anyways.
My brother is the only other person I know in person who likes Final Fantasy enough to have an opinion on several games in the series. He thought I was crazy when I first said that XIII is the better game a few years ago.
Then he started playing the HD remaster of X and he's now aboard my ship.
Aside from his campy personality, the biggest problem I had with Seymour is that the game didn't need him. He seemed thrown into the story because the writers (and co) felt that Sin wasn't enough of an immediate threat, especially in the mid-game.
Hmm, I always sort of liked his motivation and the way he tried to use Yuna to become Yu Yevon. Idk,I liked his addition to the story (even if he was a bit campy).
I don't think they're that different from each other, at least not in significant ways. The main differentiator to me was that FF10 "starts" faster. FF13 in comparison made some attempts, but just didn't have the momentum in its pacing to get into a groove until several hours later. Its battle system is not intuitive as FF10's, but ended up being the more interesting of the two in the long run. In terms of characters, writing, presentation, and especially world design, they're pretty similar. I don't particularly care for either of them though.
Let's see... Better characters, Better story, equal music (except to Zarnakand is better than almost every Final Fantasy track), Better battle system, better overall gameplay, better and more immersive world.
FFX got a lot of shit back in the day for essentially being Point A to Point B. but it was one of those criticisms that never stuck for whatever reason. or XIII was just that much worse with it everybody forgot
For me FFX is a game I wanted to play more when it "opened up" and FFXIII was a game I didn't when it "opened up".
I chalk that up to (not ranked):
1) I liked the battle system more (while still enjoying FFXIII's)
2) I liked the optional content more (including beating Nemesis)
3) I liked the character customization more (I fully remapped the sphere grid)
4) I liked the story more
5) I didn't hate any of the playable characters
6) I didn't hate all but two of the playable characters
7) Hope, Snow, Lightning, and Vanille were not playable characters
8) I enjoyed the world more
9) I enjoyed the music more
10) I was a younger unemployed high school student who had all the free time in the world
Do people even talk about X? XIII has become a meme for near complete failure and worthlessness, so it gets brought up as a shorthand.
& I don't know what kind of quality analysis your going to get when talking about a 14(?) year old game vs an 8(?) year old game anyway, beyond 'garbage this' 'dumpster fire that'. People's memories aren't that good, especially with subjective matters like judging a game.
FFX got a lot of shit back in the day for essentially being Point A to Point B. but it was one of those criticisms that never stuck for whatever reason. or XIII was just that much worse with it everybody forgot
The areas were very much corridors, very well designed ones though, but it really wasn't something you noticed unless you went looking for it. XIII was also corridors, only they were poorly designed and you were always aware of it. X at least had small off-shoots in areas as well as story sections that would take you off the path you thought you'd be going down and some puzzles while on whatever path you were on.
You can make point A to point B work, the progression just needs to feel natural. Generally in X you wanted to constantly move forward, you wanted to see the next area, watch the next snippet of story, fight the next boss and see the end of the journey. Even then, you'd get sidetracked doing something you didn't think you'd do.
XIII just put you on rails going from one fight to the next, it didn't have the sort of forward momentum X had either. That's generally the issue with XIII, the lack of forward momentum. The story didn't make you want to force your way forward, the game design forced you forward, and that's a huge part of why that game failed.
I very much disagree. The XIII system felt like I wasn't even playing the game, that the game was playing itself. Even XII didn't feel like that and that game literally played itself!
Despite FFX having a corridorish style like FFXIII, at least FFX's maps had actual continuity. Like going from Point A to Point B, you can see smooth transition going to the next point, like the map connects.
FFXIII, unfortunately, had maps that were abrupt. Like if you finish this area with Character Set A, and when you get back to Character Set A, the transition is abrupt and got me thinking "how did the garbage dump transition to a crystal forest?"
I would that said characters usually take logical decisions as opposed to XIII where half of the problems could have been resolved if they weren't complete and total morons. Poor Sazh he was the only normal guy and had to be in the FF with the most stupid cast ever.
I would that said characters usually take logical decisions as opposed to XIII where half of the problems could have been resolved if they weren't complete and total morons. Poor Sazh he was the only normal guy and had to be in the FF with the most stupid cast ever.
As someone who played FF10 back in the day but only really finished recently, I've been wondering how these two compare (I only played a couple hours of XIII).
Pretty much the only thing I disliked about X was how ridiculously linear and it was and how often it interrupts you with stuff like those lame trials.
I don't want to say just the story is better, the storytelling is also tremendously more accomplished in FFX than in FFXIII.
In X, you are a stranger in a strange land. Tidus doesn't know anything about Spira so when things are explained to him, they are explained to us. But it's vastly more than a simple expository trick.
In doing so, we not only learn about the world around him, but we learn about the characters and how they feel about the world. We learn about Wakka's bigotry and mourning for his brother as he explains the world to Tidus. We learn about Auron's cynicism and regret as he explains the world to Tidus.
Later, our limited perspective on the world is actually used to create twists and moments of great tension as the rug is pulled out from under us, and its revealed people kept basic, commonly known truths from Tidus and us because of how painful they were.
In XIII, nobody really explains anything to anyone. They all know it, at least the basics. That means vital information and motivations of characters has to be conveyed through a fucking encyclopedia. The storytelling is so fucking terrible it has to say "here is what Hope's motivation is rn because we don't know how to convey it through dialogue or acting or screenwriting".
Or it has to write a codex entry on Cocoon or Falcie or whatever because it can't figure out how to tell a story without sloppy diegesis. So you spend your time reading about who the characters are and what they want like they're the cloaking system on the Normandy in Mass Effect and people wonder why they can't remember what happened in FFXIII.
1) Pacing
2) Pacing
3) Pacing
4) Better story and characters
I will never applaude FFX's corridor world design, but it at least breaks up your activities with time for exploration of small areas, towns, puzzles, side and incidental content to make you feel attached to the world.
FFXIII is just run forward -> battle -> run forward -> battle ad infinitum.
I enjoyed FFXIII a lot more, gameplay-wise it slaughtered FFX. When I was done with FFX I couldn't believe I actually finished it so it's sort of baffles me how high the game is actually regarded by FF/JRPG fans.
Overall FFX is my least favorite single-player FF from VI to XIII (not counting spinoffs) and I'd never recommend it to anyone. Then again, I wouldn't recommend any other FF game over lots of other JRPGs as I'm not particularly fond of FF series in general.
This really isn't wrong. A very intentional design choice was made allthroughout 10, which isn't the case in 13. Plus the characters are better, story is actually understandable, and the battle system is fantastic.
It's disingenuous to say XIII and X are both linear and leave it at that. XIII is wayyyyyyy more linear. Examples of how XIII is more linear:
For most of the game, can't pick your party
Unlike the sphere grid which offers constraints but the ability to break them and make individual choices, there is no choice in leveling up in the crystarium or whatever it's called.
XIII doesn't really have side quests or anything to do but follow the story forward
XIII lacks a time-sink mini game like blitzball
No backtracking
Yes, X has hallways and propels you forward in the story quite a bit, but it's way less constrained.
And aside from those facts, my opinion is that X also has a better world, better music minus one or two standout themes from XIII, a more enjoyable battle system, more likable characters and better storytelling. So in all, FFX ranks very high in ny list of favorite FF's, and XIII is at the bottom.
That is fine by me actually. Vaan and Penelo plays the common man role. Their story is unimportant in the large scheme of things, but keeps it grounded.
All the other main characters are in a higher class of society in Ivalice, or in Fran's case outside of it.
The story for one is much more clear and concise in FFX. It's not as lore heavy like in FFXIII but you get a good grasp on what Spira is all about, because it's not stuffed with too much lore. I'd also say the CGs in this game are one of the very memorable bunches in the FF series (especially the ending).
Also despite the linear structure of FFX, you can actually backtrack to the previous location and there are more quests that are just not hunts like in FFXIII.
Hell, some side quests like the Jecht sphere actually require you to backtrack and while you do so you see people's diaologue changing based on the events in Spira.
OK, I am surprised by some replies. I have fully played X and XIII and tried X-2, XIII-2 and XIII-3 but I think I will need to give both X-2 and XIII-2 another chance...
Back to the topic, X may not be perfect but every time I replay it, it thrills me. That has never happened with XIII.
