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[Shifty1897]

FFXIII did everything wrong so that FFVIIR could do everything right.

After watching the FFXVI trailer a few more times, I'm pumped for it.

 

[D.Final]

Not only was it a terrible game, but it also ruined an entire generation of final fantasy games with direct sequels and spin-offs. Imagine Nintendo releasing a Mario game where all you do is swim through shit-laden sewers. Then they just release Mario: Shitswimmers 2 that only stars a random Yoshi and Luigi, followed up by Mario: The Turd Returns that's a real-time strategy game. And that's all you get in the otherwise fun Mario series for 7 years and an entire console generation.

That's what the XIII series is for Final Fantasy fans. Toriyama, the director, had the weirdest fetish for his main character too.

THIS
Definetly This

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Yeah, but it's got an interesting battle system and a really kickass battle theme song.

 

[MadchesterManc]

Thought it was good myself, not the best in the series but not the worst either. Enjoyed the combat system as well seen as it felt like an evolution of what was tried in FFX-2

 

[Azelover]

I like the music and overall art, the visuals are nice.

But yeah, it's pretty bad.

 

[Alphagear]

Yes it really was that bad.

Linear and a story to this day I still can't comprehend.

L'Cie, Falcie, Pulse L'cie, Cie Cie Cie and Bullshit.

Did anyone else understand what was going on?

 

[sublimit]

I have been thinking about it a lot in recent years. I think i appreciate it now more than i did back then and i want to give it another chance one day. I haven't played FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns yet so it would be a good opportunity to experience the whole trilogy.
I still think fondly of its art direction and music though.Combat system was fine too. I think i actually prefer its combat system more than FFXV's or FFVIIR's.

 

[TheContact]

FF13: amazing gameplay, graphics, music
everything else sucks, especially the story. My god the story and voice acting.

 

[Orky]

Yes, every FF released after FFX is Bad.

 

[johntown]

It has grown on me and I actually bought it day one. I enjoyed it for what it was at the time but was not fond of the fighting system or the linear level design. It was graphically amazing at the time too. The music was also great but I found the story was disjointed and confusing.

I ended up buying again on PC but I have not played a second time but plan to at some point.

I love Final Fantasy and the only ones I don't like are the MMO's, 12 and Lightning Returns. I enjoy all of them even though I don't like the newer ones as much. That is mainly because I prefer turn based and full party management.

If you have only played the older ones 1-10 and you like those you may not like this one as much. If you have only played the newer ones then you will probably enjoy this one.

 

[chaseroni]

One of my favorite Final Fantasy games tbh, the world is really top notch and I like the characters quite a bit. Sure it's super linear but I kinda liked that straightforward-ness of it. It made it easy for me to hop in for a few hours and make steady progress. Music is stellar as well.

 

[Cybrwzrd]

13 (and it's sequels) are the last decent to good entry in the Final Fantasy series, MMOS and Action RPGs don't count.

 

[poodaddy]

It's worse than X-2 and 7 Remake. Just sit and try to comprehend that level of shit for a second. It boggles the mind.

That being said, from an audio visual perspective, I think it showed the absolute upper limits of the 360/PS3 era in many ways, and for that it should be given some credit......shit games though.

 

[RokkanStoned]

In my opinion, yes. However, everyone's tastes are different and you'll find plenty of people who loved it as well. I've been a Final Fantasy fanboy for a long time and FFXIII just broke me. Final Fantasy as a franchise at this point is a shell of its former self. FFXIV was a big disaster at launch, and even after ARR it honestly didn't have a story hook or gameplay loop to hold me and I can't be bothered to wait until it gets good. FFXV I was kinda hyped for, as it was a promise of FFVersus XIII which was kind of the FFXIII we wanted but never got. However, I dropped that game after 5-7 hours as it just bored me. With FFXVI being basically FFXIV single-player with a dash of FFXII and FFXV, I'm never really finding any excitement about FF. It could always change with new footage, but the era in which FF was at top is long past.

FFXIII or the whole Fabula Nova Crystallis series seemed like ambition getting to someone's own head. Still FFVersus XIII looked so fucking good and fun compared to what we got with FFXV or FFXIII. I wonder how the other timeline where FFVersus XIII was made is going.

Honestly, Square Enix should make an experimental FF spin-off series where they give mid-sized teams of creative people the ability to attempt being really creative in terms of producing FF games. Give into creative explosion, using various teams. Fuck, hire Yoko Taro for an edgier project. Hire someone else for a more classical and fantastical one. Get pumping out these games until you hit gold again. That was kinda the good part of the formula, the ability to keep something mainline staples, while constantly reinventing yourself.
Also, please more focus on your party, on a tactical combat system, on locations, clever world building and sidequests. On moment to moment gameplay and story progression. Also don't try too hard to copy whatever is "modern". Don't be afraid to try out different art directions and stylization.

 

[Valonquar]

SE has a real problem with going too far overboard on edgy plotlines that keep going overboard until even the devs don't know wtf is going on by the end.

 

[Orenji Neko]

I do not hate it but do not like it much either compared to other FF games。Feel mostly same about it as FF15。For me, FF13 and FF15 are opposite sides of the same line and something in the middle would have been interesting maybe。Both games end up having almost the same things I like such as story concept/potential, music, graphics, and then the rest I am disappointed by。Played too many truly bad or broken games to say I hate them or they are the same but rather I just do not like them。I am not upset to own them but other RPG and FF games will be chosen to play or replay before I consider those two again。

But back to FF13, Hamauzu-san soundtrack was wonderful。Hamauzu-san and Soken-san are both great successors to Uematsu-san。 I also feel that FF4, FF10, and FF7Remake handle being linear style RPG better。

 

[frogger]

Yes it is.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

The game was a hot mess.

I don't think people would've latched so much on the tubeworld meme if it had delivered a cool, coherent story and relatable characters.

 

[loktaiextatus]

As a game like.. its not TRASH but youd expect a lot more from a mainline FF game. Like it is an alright JRPG but its a pretty lackluster Final Fantasy.

 

[Kokoloko85]

I cant wait for Final Fantasy 16, looks amazing.

Im tired of steampunk or futuristic final fantasies atm.

I enjoyed 15 and loved 7,8, 10 which were futuristic etc.

BUT 13 not so much. Gameplay wise and characters were the weakest I felt in the series

 

[kunonabi]

It's freaking terrible but I don't have the energy to tear into all the things it did wrong, which is everything aside from subjective taste in regard to music, but I'll touch on two elements.

For pretty much the first gazillion hours of the game you're basically funneled in a straight line where a simple pattern emerges: Walk forward, kill stuff, characters stop to talk about their feelings, walk forward, kill stuff, characters stop to talk about their feelings, walk forward and you get the picture. You jump from party to party but that's still basically it for the loooongest time and it's painfully lazy from a game design and story telling perspective.

To go from something like FFVI and it's wealth of scenarios to FFXIII is about as big of a drop in ambition and scope as I've ever seen.

The combat is abysmal. Maybe some of the optional bosses are an exception but the vast majority of the game you're dealing with a pretty simple flowchart for every battle:

Blitz the enemy and kill it as fast as possible > if that doesn't work buff your characters and blitz the enemy > if that doesn't work then cast status ailments and blitz the enemy, if that still doesn't work than buff your characters, cast status ailments, and blitz the enemy.

That's it aside from the occasional healing and doing that quick gauge glitch or whatever it was. There is no real room for in-depth specialization or strategy because of how the combat is laid out with the paradigm stuff. I think there was one battle I can remember that played out differently because of something involved with a summon but the majority of the game could be played with the absolute minimum of effort and attention, just occasional shoulder button taps.

Older FF games had combat that could be pretty broken once you started messing it but at least there was something to break and enjoyment to be had from the process.

 

[Freeman76]

I loved it. Not the best in the series but had some excellent battles, amazing soundtrack, it was a real spectacle to me

 

[mikefrails]

Led the way for presentation which unlike the gameplay is not debatable.

 

[Boneyblaff]

I remember getting it on release for my birthday, played about 20 hours and dropped it. Just wasn't for me, and other games in the series were just more up my alley. BUT HOLY HELL - the music is top tier and I listen to it regularly.

 

[Kumomeme]

Remember back in the day that there talk about square that time struggled to make 'HD town'? not just them, lot of japanese developers struggled that generation. Crystal Tools that supposed to be a engine that helped developers turn out to be a huge mess and this probably related to how XIII become linear, no town, npc, quest and other various content. But in the sequel like in XIII-2 and LR:FFXIII we can see the devs actually can pull those thing which is probably due to how they already get used to the Crystal Tools. That time the engine probably already completed too. Compared to during XIII, the engine is still in development alongside the game so there lot of technical difficulties that lead to the final state of the game. The engine not only hindered XIII but also FFXIV 1.0 and i guess also affected the Versus XIII development. The fiasco by XIII and XIV 1.0 lead to lot of devs get pulled from various team to fix the mess. There rumors that Nomura is furious that his staff get pulled to helped fix the problem that affected Versus 13 development that time.

ofcourse, there is problem with square management that want the engine to be developed alongside 3 different game at same time despite it not completed yet. Thats why for XV, former technical director Julien Mceron want the engine to be developed alongside one game only to avoid similliar fiasco again.

So imagine if Crystal Tools that time not such a mess, decent and good engine. Or they use UE3 that time instead. My guess is:

-FFXIII would be not that linear, there is town, proper storyline and content
-XIV 1.0 might would not be such a huge failure (but we wont get that current XIV)
-Versus 13 happened (Nomura get his game done)
-KH3 come out sooner during ps3 era. We now probably already get KH4 (no Verum Rex stuff)
-FFXVI probably already happened during ps4 era. We now waiting for XVII instead.

this is possible scenario that might happened in this 'alternate timeline' lol

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

FF X and XIII are the most absolute garbage games in the series. People give X a pass for nostalgia and people will start doing the same for XIII in a few years.

FF XV is better than both of them btw, at least I can move around on the map freely.

Final Fantasy X was always good. Nothing to do with nostalgia. The turn-based gameplay assigning party members to deal the most damage to specific monster types and the sphere grid system were a lot of fun and Auron is one of the coolest characters in the series.

Worst entry in the series would be Final Fantasy VIII.

 

[SkylineRKR]

FFX is a classic. I was kind of indifferent to it when it was announced, because of VA and no world map. But I really liked its story, OST and overall atmosphere. Especially on Vita I loved it, the idea that I played it via handheld with suspend/resume was an awesome experience. I think FFX holds up rather well, its gameplay is still good. Battle system isn't my fave or anything but it works.

XIII will never reach this kind of status. In fact, I've tried to replay it about twice over the years. Both times I just stopped at Lake Bresha. There was nothing to see after all, there is no real hidden content, no other ways to tackle fights or build variety (I did create an OP glass cannon Sazh I guess). There is basically nothing to do beyond the main adventure and its boring marks funneled in one location. And grinding those fucking turtles.

 

[DrumNBassDanTTV]

Once you get to the open world area (map) then FF13 is amazing, until then though its very linear but the combat system is great along with the stagger system.

 

[Magusx]

I think FFXIII was my most anticipated title of all time.It looked to be the perfect game for me when I saw the first trailer. Shame game was such a letdown.

 

[LordCBH]

I liked it then and I like it now. Don’t love it, but I still enjoy it. The sequels though can kiss my ass.

 

[Kodiak]

The FF13 era killed my interest in Final Fantasy, which used to be my absolute favorite series growing up.

It wasn't until I finally gave FF14 which revitalized my love for the franchise.

FF13 is total dogshit.

Thank god 16 is in good hands.

 

[Svengoolie007]

It's a really beautiful game, and I think the story is great. The gameplay is the problem though. It feels like I'm doing a chore, running down the corridor, so that I can be rewarded with watching the next scene. So to me, that says it should have just been a movie/series in the first place.

 

[base]

Nope, it's much worse than bad.
Final Fantasy XIII remains, for me, even today one of the worst Final Fantasy of the saga.
(along with Final Fantasy III)

- no cities to explore
- no minigames
- more linear maps of FFX (and those of FFX were already linear)
- interactions with NPCs reduced to 0 (the shops are only the robots that act as a save point ....)
- Transformers Summons (bad taste, and with the same identical obtaining system)
- combat system too much automatic (and the player only change paradigm shifts, and for me this isn't fun at all...)
- characters too caricatured (like Snow and Hope ...)
- 0 freedom of exploration for 95% of the game (for which, afterwards, only "Omen" hunting missions can be made that are identical to each other, and almost not at all original)
- story without bite, and also quite convulsive
- the sequels XIII-2 and Lighting Returns, are one of the most forced and narratively illogical sequels ever made by a Final Fantasy game

The only pros are just the soundtrack and graphics.
But, despite being important components, if the gameplay and the plot do not convince, I would not call it a good result.

P.S.:
FFXV>>>>>FFXIII Trilogy
FFXI>>>>>>FFXIII
FFVII and VII Remake>>>FFXIII
FFXIV ARR>>>FFXIII
FFXII>>>>>FFXIII

Oh God, not you again.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I actually kinda liked the game at the time. The combat system was fun and the music was great. And it sure was pretty.

But yeah, even at the time, I had to acknowledge that the story was pretty awful, the characters were worse, and the game's hard-on for incomprehensible techno-babble was downright painful. So, I guess it depends on where your priorities are.

 

[ZippyTheOtter]

Love it to this day. The combat absolutely shines in the optional bosses.

The story being hidden in datalogs was capital D Dumb though.

 

[Mista]

G A R B A G E

It’s a disgrace that this game is called Final Fantasy

 

[MagnesG]

The first time I hated a FF game so much.

 

[t_wilson01]

I enjoyed it overall. I liked the environments, some of the characters and enemies, as well as the combat mechanics. I did not care for the story at all.

I found the story of FFXIII-2 rather interesting and loved the time travel element. I missed not having Lightning in the party and hated the clock mini game.