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[Zoe]

I'd rather not go to prison, so I'll take neither of them. Seriously, Serah is the very definition of jailbait and I just can't dissociate that from her character after witnessing the abomination that is Snow and Serah kissing in an FMV.

You have to be under 18 to be the "very definition" of jailbait.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Oh god, the sprayed on abs. D:

 

[HK-47]

You have to be under 18 to be the "very definition" of jailbait.

The spitting image

 

[Jo Shishido's Cheeks]

what...

Look I like the game but what you wrote just doesn't make sense:

1) Seaside City of Bodhum where you control Snow. It wasn't a town. It wasn't even a village! It was a stripe of beach and 1 (one!) tiny-ass shack (bar) on it. It was laughable at best.

2) in pretty much every FF title ever the party is being chased by the government at some place in the history. And in every other game you had beatiful, "walkable" towns be it in 2D (FF7, FF8) or 3D (FF12). This argument that l'Cie are being hunt down and Square didn't make HD Towns because of that makes no fucking sense and is the cheapest cop-out FF13 fanbois have ever produced.

3) Palumpolum was the closest we got to real HD Towns. It looked fantastic but saying we could "talk to people" there is silly. There were no dialogues in FF13 except during the very first minutes on Palmecia (before the chapter really starts). No talking in Palumpolum and no talking during Eden siege. Totally wasted opportunity!

Extra point:

4) The City of Light (Nautilius) with like 4 tiny-ass corridors and a blocked Chocobo Square was just embarrassing and a slap in the face for FF fans. When the CG started, before I could actually walk in there, I thought this would be like Golden Saucer from FF7. Amazing looking, HD Golden Saucer! What we all got... pathetic.

So please, stop defending the game for the traits it totally doesn't show and for the things were Square really, really dropped the ball.

FF13 had amazing graphics, battle system, good story etc. but nothing like "homages" to old FF titles, talking with NPCs etc.

Fanboi?
Wow....... Really?
I don't think anybody has ever referred to me being a fanboi of anything so, um, thanks!

Alright seriously though, I know Bodhum wasn't a town in the traditional sense (I even wrote 'town' with the marks and everything) but it largely served the same purpose and despite it's size (it was simply a flashback after all) managed to be memorable and imo fairly well done.

The game up until that point had a relentless narrative (after literally beginning in a war zone) and didn't really let up until this moment. It was a well done break in the narrative and I really do see it as a homage to the older style.
The game up until that point was pretty much the least Final Fantasy Final Fantasy what with the 'exploration' choices, overhauled battle system, items, shops, etc then you get to Bodhum which actually isn't a corridor and offers you an (extremely limited) experience of exploration, you were talking to NPC's for clues to locate somebody and even pressing X to talk, all of which were reminders of the old style and removed from what had gone into the game before this point.

The game being so striped down suited the story it was telling and it really did (for me) feel relentless and taking a break to do a sightseeing tour around a town would've broken this.
This is NOT an excuse for lazy environments or lack of towns, all I'm saying is due to the way the story was presented, I didn't personally miss them or think their exclusion had an overall impact on the story.

Finally, I distinctly remember talking to people. You don't remember the kid who had lost his grandfather and the other people discussing their worries / fears of l'cie?
Again it wasn't reams and reams of dialogue but it was there, understated like everything else in the game and I was thankful for it.

 

[Gram Negative Cocci]

Fanboi?
Wow....... Really?
I don't think anybody has ever referred to me being a fanboi of anything so, um, thanks!

Alright seriously though, I know Bodhum wasn't a town in the traditional sense (I even wrote 'town' with the marks and everything) but it largely served the same purpose and despite it's size (it was simply a flashback after all) managed to be memorable and imo fairly well done.

The game up until that point had a relentless narrative (after literally beginning in a war zone) and didn't really let up until this moment. It was a well done break in the narrative and I really do see it as a homage to the older style.
The game up until that point was pretty much the least Final Fantasy Final Fantasy what with the 'exploration' choices, overhauled battle system, items, shops, etc then you get to Bodhum which actually isn't a corridor and offers you an (extremely limited) experience of exploration, you were talking to NPC's for clues to locate somebody and even pressing X to talk, all of which were reminders of the old style and removed from what had gone into the game before this point.

The game being so striped down suited the story it was telling and it really did (for me) feel relentless and taking a break to do a sightseeing tour around a town would've broken this.
This is NOT an excuse for lazy environments or lack of towns, all I'm saying is due to the way the story was presented, I didn't personally miss them or think their exclusion had an overall impact on the story.

Finally, I distinctly remember talking to people. You don't remember the kid who had lost his grandfather and the other people discussing their worries / fears of l'cie?
Again it wasn't reams and reams of dialogue but it was there, understated like everything else in the game and I was thankful for it.

That fanboi comment was not strictly directed at you.

Anyway there was 0 talking to people in FF13. You just bumped into them and they spouted one-liners. They didn't give you subquests, offer mini-games, history background. Nothing. Literally NOTHING.

It's not talking when you don't even respond, is it?

 

[Jo Shishido's Cheeks]

That fanboi comment was not strictly directed at you.

Anyway there was 0 talking to people in FF13. You just bumped into them and they spouted one-liners. They didn't give you subquests, offer mini-games, history background. Nothing. Literally NOTHING.

It's not talking when you don't even respond, is it?

Well in that sense then no there was no talking and whatever dialogues there were involving NPC's were meaningless.
It would've been cool to see Snows little group around more or if there was some kind of l'cie sympathisers group who you interacted with but again, in service of the story, you were supposed to feel like outcasts ostracised from society. Not talking with anybody (NOT that it's a good thing) only adds the the situation the characters are going through I suppose.

Note: I'm not a huge die-hard supporter of this game, I just feel it gets unfairly shit on because 'no towns!' when for me it was actually successful in a number of areas, battle system most of all. I'm looking forward to this sequel anyway

 

[Gram Negative Cocci]

Me too. I loved FF13 but let's get real: it did a lot of things wrong. If not for the presentation layer (GFX + SFX) it would have been a HUGE disappointment for me. Luckily, Square nailed the art department.

 

[Dunan]

That fanboi comment was not strictly directed at you.

Anyway there was 0 talking to people in FF13. You just bumped into them and they spouted one-liners. They didn't give you subquests, offer mini-games, history background. Nothing. Literally NOTHING.

It's not talking when you don't even respond, is it?

I'll say one thing in FFXIII's favor: I liked how people would start talking when you walked up to them, rather than having to press a button. I also liked how they were fully voiced. The voices themselves weren't much to get excited about -- no regional differences in speech; just a bunch of whiny sheep, for the msot part -- but it left me wondering what they could do in a future game.

It's something future RPGs could certainly make standard. Walk near somebody, they talk to you. No button pressing.

Now I'm imagining FFXII like this... Archadean and Dalmascan accents... make it happen in the HD remake, Square!

 

[Gram Negative Cocci]

I'll say one thing in FFXIII's favor: I liked how people would start talking when you walked up to them, rather than having to press a button. I also liked how they were fully voiced. The voices themselves weren't much to get excited about -- no regional differences in speech; just a bunch of whiny sheep, for the msot part -- but it left me wondering what they could do in a future game.

It's something future RPGs could certainly make standard. Walk near somebody, they talk to you. No button pressing.

Now I'm imagining FFXII like this... Archadean and Dalmascan accents... make it happen in the HD remake, Square!

Yeah the drop in VO department in FF13 vs FF12 is... humongous. I can't grasp my head around it to be honest.

The voices were so badly cast in FF13. Mistake after mistake.

 

[Jo Shishido's Cheeks]

Me too. I loved FF13 but let's get real: it did a lot of things wrong. If not for the presentation layer (GFX + SFX) it would have been a HUGE disappointment for me. Luckily, Square nailed the art department.

Agreed, I was a huge fan of the art style and design. The world of FF8 is perhaps my favourite though which is probably why I have a soft spot for 13 too.
Nobody can deny that there were some huge deficiencies within the game design of 13 though but I have a feeling Square won't rectify any of them for this sequel.

There's always Versus-13 I suppose.....

 

[Gram Negative Cocci]

Agreed, I was a huge fan of the art style and design. The world of FF8 is perhaps my favourite though which is probably why I have a soft spot for 13 too.
Nobody can deny that there were some huge deficiencies within the game design of 13 though but I have a feeling Square won't rectify any of them for this sequel.

There's always Versus-13 I suppose.....

Indeed, FF13 reminded me very much of FF8. Very similiar world design? Art? Something along that. FF12 was all medieval like FFT (good thing) but it seems I craved that superb "real-life sci-fi" FF8 setting.

 

[staticneuron]

That fanboi comment was not strictly directed at you.

Anyway there was 0 talking to people in FF13. You just bumped into them and they spouted one-liners. They didn't give you subquests, offer mini-games, history background. Nothing. Literally NOTHING.

It's not talking when you don't even respond, is it?

You say that as if dialog trees are normal in the FF series. The same level of interaction that was in XIII was also present in the FF all the way back to snes days.

I understand people are upset about not having towns but in this game, the government hunted these people "and" rounded up people they even suspected came into contact. To try to compare that to other FF is a cop out. In the other FF's they were after entities or groups but you never were put in a situation where you were literally surrounded by people who either hated or feared you (even out of ignorance). Not to mention you are basically on a natural satellite so it made sense that you were put through that nonsense for so long on cocoon.

 

[NotebookJ2]

It's something future RPGs could certainly make standard. Walk near somebody, they talk to you. No button pressing.

Xenosaga 3 had something similar, though they weren't voiced and were text bubbles instead that would pop up when you were near the NPC. For me, it felt really natural compared to the usual method.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

You say that as if dialog trees are normal in the FF series. The same level of interaction that was in XIII was also present in the FF all the way back to snes days.

Where did he mention dialogue trees?

I understand people are upset about not having towns but in this game, the government hunted these people "and" rounded up people they even suspected came into contact. To try to compare that to other FF is a cop out. In the other FF's they were after entities or groups but you never were put in a situation where you were literally surrounded by people who either hated or feared you (even out of ignorance). Not to mention you are basically on a natural satellite so it made sense that you were put through that nonsense for so long on cocoon.

Which is pretty weird since the game's story shows a few distinct cases where characters could just walk into a crowded city and nobody would care. Like in Palumpolum when Snow has to punch out a guard, fire a machine gun into the air, and loudly announce to the universe that he's a l'Cie before people start actually noticing; all during a city wide panic that only occurred because he turned an entire city center into solid ice.

 

[Gram Negative Cocci]

Where did he mention dialogue trees?

Which is pretty weird since the game's story shows a few distinct cases where characters could just walk into a crowded city and nobody would care. Like in Palumpolum when Snow has to punch out a guard, fire a machine gun into the air, and loudly announce to the universe that he's a l'Cie before people start actually noticing; all during a city wide panic that only occurred because he turned an entire city center into solid ice.

Yup.

The whole "HD Towns did not fit into the story of hunted l'Cie" is a straight A-grade bullshit Square faithfuls came up with.

Here's the real reason: laziness.

 

[ShinobiFist]

Please, don't be a straight line again.

 

[Gram Negative Cocci]

Hehe.

 

[CrankyJay]

Please, don't be a straight line again.

I got over it.

 

[BJK]

Yup.

The whole "HD Towns did not fit into the story of hunted l'Cie" is a straight A-grade bullshit Square faithfuls came up with.

Here's the real reason: laziness.

I don't think it's laziness, so much as a need to cut down the side-quests / divergences / things that make a FF game into a FF game, in order to actually push something out the door. A 'When it's Done' FF13 could have been a great game, could have had things to do in Nautilus, could have had sidepaths, etc. It would just have FF13-2's release date.


Didn't like a lot of that game (12 was so much better in game mechanics, while still doing things differently than the previous titles), but I think there could have been a decent FF game underneath all of it. They just took too long trying to find it.

 

[gembel]

The ending of the trailer shows "for playstation 3 system" instead of just "for ps3".. Is psvita ver incoming??

 

[TacticalFox88]

Ugh, no change to that godawful battle system? WTF, SE?

 

[jett]

http://www.abload.de/img/originalqdhk.jpg[IMG]

Hehe.[/QUOTE]

Where were the complainers of this stuff when FFX came out? :P

 

[Aeana]

Where were the complainers of this stuff when FFX came out?

Not on the internet, so they didn't have anyone to tell them they should be outraged.

 

[RoninChaos]

I don't think it's laziness, so much as a need to cut down the side-quests / divergences / things that make a FF game into a FF game, in order to actually push something out the door. A 'When it's Done' FF13 could have been a great game, could have had things to do in Nautilus, could have had sidepaths, etc. It would just have FF13-2's release date.


Didn't like a lot of that game (12 was so much better in game mechanics, while still doing things differently than the previous titles), but I think there could have been a decent FF game underneath all of it. They just took too long trying to find it.

Lack of direction fucked 13.

 

[Rpgmonkey]

Ugh, no change to that godawful battle system? WTF, SE?

What were people expecting when they said they were using the same system, but making changes to it?

I figured it never meant the ATB gauge and possibly Paradigm Shifting were going to get some massive overhaul, but the changes and additions will come to other aspects of the combat, like maybe a more useful collection of items, stronger A.I. and party control, Summons, extra game mechanics, etc. Things that either can't be shown in a screenshot or they don't want to show just yet.

 

[Korigama]

Indeed, FF13 reminded me very much of FF8. Very similiar world design? Art? Something along that. FF12 was all medieval like FFT (good thing) but it seems I craved that superb "real-life sci-fi" FF8 setting.

To be honest, neither XIII's setting nor art direction remind me much of VIII at all unless I think back to Esther. At this point, Versus XIII seems the most similar to VIII aesthetically (and thematically, Type-0 due to the military academy angle).

EDIT: The city of Esther and I guess the Ragnarok's design in respect to VIII. Otherwise, no, XIII seemed to have a much greater emphasis on the sci-fi aspects compared to VIII (which balanced those with a more contemporary style by comparison).

 

[Edvardelis]

Please, don't be a straight line again.

Most of the Final Fantasy games are straight lines until the end. They just weren't as in your face about it as FFXIII is.

 

[sonicmj1]

Where were the complainers of this stuff when FFX came out?

X does the same thing, but it's paced a lot better. You don't spend the whole time running down corridors and getting into battles. There are mandatory segments that break up the action, like blitzball, or the puzzle dungeons you needed to do to get summons. And every now and then they drop you in towns where you can talk to people and buy things, dialing back the pace of the action a bit.

The closest things to that in FFXIII, at least in the early going, is that one time where Hope gets on a mech, and the chocobo hunt in Nautilus Park. The gameplay interludes without action are very short, but action parts are as long as they ever were.

The pacing is the real difference, not the corridor.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Not on the internet, so they didn't have anyone to tell them they should be outraged.

There are people who complain about both, X is just better at hiding its tube.

 

[hateradio]

There are people who complain about both, X is just better at hiding its tube.

What about the long road? Literally, a long road.

 

[ZephyrFate]

Ugh, no change to that godawful battle system? WTF, SE?

It didn't need fixing, because it was so good.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

What about the long road? Literally, a long road.

You mean Mi'hen?

Yeah, it was pretty blatant there.

They managed to distract people by having it split off into Mushroom Rock Road and D'jose Temple even though those were mandatory sections.

 

[Let me in]

It didn't need fixing, because it was so good.

It was okay. I need in-field battles a la FFXII again, but it looks like we're not getting that.

The crystalium system needs to go, too. It was so mindless.

 

[ZephyrFate]

It was okay. I need in-field battles a la FFXII again, but it looks like we're not getting that.

The crystalium system needs to go, too. It was so mindless.

If in-field battles return, at least make them interesting and not totally dull fields of shit brown and yellow.

 

[michaeltraps]

Traditional victory theme please SE!

 

[jiggle]

it looks nice
just need to know if revisiting old areas are back in
what a dumb fuck design decision

 

[HK-47]

If in-field battles return, at least make them interesting and not totally dull fields of shit brown and yellow.

Well lucky for you, FFXII has those already!

 

[Fimbulvetr]

it looks nice
just need to know if revisiting old areas are back in
what a dumb fuck design decision

Would you honestly wanna revisit a boring straight line?

 

[RPGCrazied]

Well in the teaser video, that ruin thing he was running into is new, so at least one new area! And the seaside village.

 

[H_Prestige]

There are people who complain about both, X is just better at hiding its tube.

And in X you could also back to almost any area, and there was usually a purpose like secret items or sidequests, just like a typical FF game. XIII is just forward, forward, forward with scripted encounters. That's a huge change for the series. It's literally like an Uncharted game, only no where near as fun.

 

[ZephyrFate]

Well lucky for you, FFXII has those already!

You'd think so, but it's really just low-textured fields of shit brown and yellow in most of the game. that's pretty much all the game is -- endless fields of nothing.

 

[Jerk]

Most of the Final Fantasy games are straight lines until the end. They just weren't as in your face about it as FFXIII is.

This is factually incorrect.

 

[The Xtortionist]

Hope we get a good villain this time.

Spoiler

Pope

was boring, silly, and had incomprehensible motives.

I was looking through my Magic cards and holy shit this guy would make a good video game villain *shivers*

 

[ULTROS!]

It'll be nice if the new villain was someone like Ultimecia/Edea. She was probably one of my favorite video game villains.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Where were the complainers of this stuff when FFX came out?

FFX was extremely poor compared to the mainline games before it. The battle system, much like FFXIII, was its only saving grace.

 

[gembel]

hmm does this mean anything??

the FF13-2 trailer ending includes "system" behind "For Playstation3".. where FF13 trailer just says "For Playstation3"... could it mean another system "PSVita" version will be announced too??

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Zombie Jecht?

It'll be nice if the new villain was someone like Ultimecia/Edea. She was probably one of my favorite video game villains.

Buh?

 

[ULTROS!]

Buh?

Better than Barthandadadadadalus.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Better than Barthandadadadadalus.

The only villain in the series who's worse than Bart is Jihl.

 

[Let me in]

it looks nice
just need to know if revisiting old areas are back in
what a dumb fuck design decision

There was no area in that game worth revisiting. Nothing to go back and discover. No quest to follow up on. No item to get.