potatohead
Member
Music is the best part easily
And lightning still feels like she deserves a far better game
And lightning still feels like she deserves a far better game
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Things you enjoyed about XIII Trilogy
- Thread starter Lights and Waves
- Start date
Puck Beaverton
Banned
Fang is awesome
That's about it
That's about it
Oh for sure.
Lights and Waves
Member
Her being a soulless husk of a human was a major plot point in that game though.
Remember?
XIII -
+Great graphics and world design only let down by linearity issues.
+Fun battle system, probably one of my favorites
+Nice soundtrack
+Interesting lore
+Nice cinematics
+Good character designs
Didn't really like XIII-2 much at all, so the best I can say is I liked Noel and Caius.
LR -
+Fun combat system
+Despite the story making no fucking sense, and the game having a really low production value. I actually really liked the world. I thought it was a surprisingly well designed open world. Only let down by the stupid time mechanic.
+Good sidequests
+Really fun boss fights which offered a bit of a challenge.
+Good soundtrack
+Great graphics and world design only let down by linearity issues.
+Fun battle system, probably one of my favorites
+Nice soundtrack
+Interesting lore
+Nice cinematics
+Good character designs
Didn't really like XIII-2 much at all, so the best I can say is I liked Noel and Caius.
LR -
+Fun combat system
+Despite the story making no fucking sense, and the game having a really low production value. I actually really liked the world. I thought it was a surprisingly well designed open world. Only let down by the stupid time mechanic.
+Good sidequests
+Really fun boss fights which offered a bit of a challenge.
+Good soundtrack
Very true. The one thing people have a hard time coming to terms with is the gameplay loop. It's more about the battles giving the resources needed to stop time, so you can spend all your time in a day indefinitely if you want, only letting time pass when there's a part that requires it.
Super weird game, but when it clicked for me (and it took a while), it was totally awesome.
Lights and Waves
Member
Tbh, it makes sense when you think about it.
XIII: Lightning embarks on a journey to defy a god's plans to kill millions of humans, succeeds.
XIII-2: Empathetic god recognizes Lightning's conviction and moral compass. She restores life to Lightning and her friends in exchange for Lightning taking her place as she dies.
LR: Villain on XIII-2 succeeds in collapsing time and space. Creator God awakens and grants Lightning even more power and tasks her with collecting as many human souls as she can before he resets existence.
good to know. I have some leave from work coming up next month so maybe i'll dive back in once I'm done with The Witcher 3.
I've yet to play XIII-2 and LR, mainly because of a lack of time, so I can only add my thoughts on XIII.
Apart from stuff like music and the overall look of the world that has been mentioned already, I really like most of the main cast.
Lightning is decent enough, even if she's not that interesting on her own. She did work decently as the leader of the group.
Snow annoyed me most of the time, but even he had his moments.
Vanille was hit and miss at the start, as the noises she made in battle got old really fast, but the character revelations around her were good, and I liked her relationship with Fang.
Fang and especially Sazh were great overall, with the scene where Sazh first faces his Eidolon being especially striking.
And I honestly really like the portrayal of Hope. A lot. They did a remarkable job of depicting a realistic portrayal of a kinda spoiled and sheltered 14-year old momma's boy dealing with some severe trauma and actually growing from it. He's a completely different character by the end of the game compared to the beginning, and the change was gradual enough that you could see it happening, and why it did so. The whole revenge plot was admittedly stupid, but at least he acknowledges that it was in the end too. I think too many people got hung up on him being a bit annoying and not awesome right from the start instead of considering how an ordinary 14-year old in his shoes would react.
Apart from stuff like music and the overall look of the world that has been mentioned already, I really like most of the main cast.
Lightning is decent enough, even if she's not that interesting on her own. She did work decently as the leader of the group.
Snow annoyed me most of the time, but even he had his moments.
Vanille was hit and miss at the start, as the noises she made in battle got old really fast, but the character revelations around her were good, and I liked her relationship with Fang.
Fang and especially Sazh were great overall, with the scene where Sazh first faces his Eidolon being especially striking.
And I honestly really like the portrayal of Hope. A lot. They did a remarkable job of depicting a realistic portrayal of a kinda spoiled and sheltered 14-year old momma's boy dealing with some severe trauma and actually growing from it. He's a completely different character by the end of the game compared to the beginning, and the change was gradual enough that you could see it happening, and why it did so. The whole revenge plot was admittedly stupid, but at least he acknowledges that it was in the end too. I think too many people got hung up on him being a bit annoying and not awesome right from the start instead of considering how an ordinary 14-year old in his shoes would react.
katsubento
Member
Lightning.
Music.
Loved the battle system in XIII
Music.
Loved the battle system in XIII
And...that makes sense when you think about it?
Just like any other FF.
FF13
certain characters in the first game were not offensive and were even kinda cool.
The graphics could be pretty, especially based on when it came out.
Production values top notch
Music amazing
Battle system pretty good.
FF13-2
Music still amazing
Production values still really good
Battle system even more refined
No more of the annoying characters from the first game.
LR
....the CGI was pretty good?
And the battle system wasn't...bad...it was just ok.
certain characters in the first game were not offensive and were even kinda cool.
The graphics could be pretty, especially based on when it came out.
Production values top notch
Music amazing
Battle system pretty good.
FF13-2
Music still amazing
Production values still really good
Battle system even more refined
No more of the annoying characters from the first game.
LR
....the CGI was pretty good?
And the battle system wasn't...bad...it was just ok.
I loved the story and interaction between character in FFXIII. The battles wasn't very well balanced until you try to escape every single combat... Which mean you are underpowered and can appreciate the depth of the battle system... Until you go to Pusle and be destroyed by the first enemy you encounter.
So yeah, i liked the story (even if it was really badly written), not the OST, the characters, not the visual, the battle system, not the difficulty... Wasn't that bad in the end.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 was just a feel good travel with lot of stuff to explore and a whole non sensical time travel plot that i actually liked a lot. Sure, the characters were quite bad on this one but i appreciated it nevertheless.
Didn't played Lighting Returns for now but i can tell this trilogy is no worst than what i had to play in the PS2 days.
So yeah, i liked the story (even if it was really badly written), not the OST, the characters, not the visual, the battle system, not the difficulty... Wasn't that bad in the end.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 was just a feel good travel with lot of stuff to explore and a whole non sensical time travel plot that i actually liked a lot. Sure, the characters were quite bad on this one but i appreciated it nevertheless.
Didn't played Lighting Returns for now but i can tell this trilogy is no worst than what i had to play in the PS2 days.
Jangowuzhere
Banned
I liked Lightning Returns. As far as I'm concerned, it's the only one in the series that was actually fun to play.
The story was complete schlock, but it was actually enjoyable to revel in its insanity. That ending, for example, is of the craziest and dumb things I've seen in a video game.
The story was complete schlock, but it was actually enjoyable to revel in its insanity. That ending, for example, is of the craziest and dumb things I've seen in a video game.
Dangansona
Member
Her being a soulless husk of a human was a major plot point in that game though.
Remember?
But in his defense it is probably the thing I liked least about the trilogy. Maybe I need to replay LR at some point though. I just felt like her being in that state went on way too long and at times the voice acting and writing both betrayed the concept (does she have emotions or not?) while failing to do much interesting with it.
Tangentially, it is interesting seeing the diverse opinions on which games people like in the XIII trilogy alone. It really shows that there can never be a true consensus when it comes to FF.
But anyone saying XIII-2 isn't amazing is wrong.
Spiritwalker
Member
Phenomenal music and excellent art direction. I also like Lightning's original design quite a bit. VA was okay too, but it suffered greatly from poor writing.
Andrefpvs
Member
I already explained in my post on the last page.
As for that scene, that is pretty much his only relevant scene in the game, and it was a rushed 10-second resolution since CGI is expensive or something.
Relaxed Muscle
Member
Lightning x Hope
XIII: Great Catch-22 premise that had a lot of potential for interesting character growth. Part of the reason I give the actual story so much shit is that I liked the "crystal or monster you're fucked no matter what" premise so much and felt they could have done a lot more (or anything really) with it than they did. Fang and Sazh are likable characters. Great battle system. Hunts in Gran Pulse were fun. Beautiful graphics.
XIII-2: Improved battle system. Eliminating the Paradigm shift animation did wonders to make battles flow more smoothly. Pokemon stuff works fairly well. Freedom to progress. More interesting progression systems. Great story and characters (Noel is surprisingly reasonable, kind-hearted, and subdued for his character trope. He's almost not an trope at all). Serah feels way more like a person I want to follow around and adventure with than Lightning. Lightning is thankfully relegated to supporting character status where she's given an interesting role to work with. Caius and Yeul give us a great antagonist story to work with and it's hard not to empathize with Caius despite the insane conclusions he comes to. Fantastic ending that actually had the balls to deliver on its narrative promises, unlike XIII.
XIII: Interesting take on the battle system. I like alternate costumes in RPGs so having a different one for every job was awesome. Love job systems in general. The idea of managing limited time is an idea largely abandoned in modern RPG design and gave the game a Valkyrie Profile-type feel.
Music was great in all 3.
XIII-2: Improved battle system. Eliminating the Paradigm shift animation did wonders to make battles flow more smoothly. Pokemon stuff works fairly well. Freedom to progress. More interesting progression systems. Great story and characters (Noel is surprisingly reasonable, kind-hearted, and subdued for his character trope. He's almost not an trope at all). Serah feels way more like a person I want to follow around and adventure with than Lightning. Lightning is thankfully relegated to supporting character status where she's given an interesting role to work with. Caius and Yeul give us a great antagonist story to work with and it's hard not to empathize with Caius despite the insane conclusions he comes to. Fantastic ending that actually had the balls to deliver on its narrative promises, unlike XIII.
XIII: Interesting take on the battle system. I like alternate costumes in RPGs so having a different one for every job was awesome. Love job systems in general. The idea of managing limited time is an idea largely abandoned in modern RPG design and gave the game a Valkyrie Profile-type feel.
Music was great in all 3.
thisisamul
Neo Member
You're so right. This is one of my favorite tracks of all time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX94tfBsgcU
That does not excuse it from being an absolutely horrible character development from a game character stand point
harriet the spy
Member
Only played XIII. I mostly disliked it, except for:
Saber's edge, and more generally some of the music.
And (that's a big plus admittedly):
the combat system. There was too much combat in my mind, but the system itself was clever. It required actually thinking, but because it was fairly fast, you actually had to turn that thinking into intuition, like a dance. Compare to beloved FFVII where in my memory all fights were > FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT until one character was weak in which case I healed. With a small difference with boss fights where I unloaded all my summons first.
Saber's edge, and more generally some of the music.
And (that's a big plus admittedly):
the combat system. There was too much combat in my mind, but the system itself was clever. It required actually thinking, but because it was fairly fast, you actually had to turn that thinking into intuition, like a dance. Compare to beloved FFVII where in my memory all fights were > FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT until one character was weak in which case I healed. With a small difference with boss fights where I unloaded all my summons first.
When it opens up with all 6 characters and you start actually getting all the good more powerful attacks and spells and can customize your paradigms how exactly you want them for each team emmebr, its a good system.
Before that,it is how you describe. It takes tens of hours to get to the point i'm talking about though, specifically because they section you off to teams of 1 or 2 throughout the game and limit actual leveling up on a chapter basis, so you can't grind at all, or go further than the game allows power wise.
Don't you just tap A/X in other turn based JRPGs too? Pretty easy to reduce things to a simplistic form like that.
I don't believe anyone for a second if they say that they played the entire game without really requiring to plan their paradigms/party so as to buff/debuff and switch paradigms as required.
ArkhamFantasy
Member
Not to mention the gear and weapons you choose and what upgrades you make to them. Depending on what you do lightning might be a staggering machine or the best commando, vanille can be the best healer or the best saboteur, it depends on how you mold them.
Neither do I. The boss battles and some of the hunts are very difficult.
DATABASE DATABASE
Member
this tbqh
The bulbasaur boss was where I really felt like I needed to plan and stay alert so as to use every DPS window properly. Once it opened up and have you access to all party members as well as allow you to train then in different skills it was great.
It did take quite a long time until that happened though, chapter 10 if I remember it correctly and there were only 13 chapters. Though last 3 chapters were long, especially Pulse which could have been as long as you wanted. But it still limited your max crystarium preventing you from doing high level hunts.
It did take quite a long time until that happened though, chapter 10 if I remember it correctly and there were only 13 chapters. Though last 3 chapters were long, especially Pulse which could have been as long as you wanted. But it still limited your max crystarium preventing you from doing high level hunts.
harriet the spy
Member
Hell, some of the main story bosses are very difficult.
Barthandelus is one of the hardest main bosses in a FF, and pretending you can beat it by just dumbly repeating the same actions is a complete lie.
Pinko Marx
Banned
Fang is one of the best recent Nomura character designs.
From what I played (several hours of the first in the trilogy), the world, characters, and battle system are all among the best in the series. The only weak part that I noticed was how linear the environments were. Coming off of XII, it felt like a step backwards and not what a next gen FF should've been. But then again, FFX was super linear too and it doesn't get nearly as much apathy and/or hate as FFXIII for some reason.
MillionStabs
Banned
I really like the music in 13, haven't gotten to 13-2 or LR yet but I will someday
neogaf
neogaf
I think everyone made similar points to what I'd share, so I'll add this:
If they announced the trilogy was to be re-released at a minimum of 1080p and a solid framerate on PS4, I'd buy all 3 again in a heartbeat.
XIII overheated my fat PS3 the second I got to Gran Pulse. After picking up a replacement, I still played through the previous 10 chapters over again because I enjoyed the game that much. No hate from Gaf will ever change the enjoyment I had with the trilogy. Lightning <3
If they announced the trilogy was to be re-released at a minimum of 1080p and a solid framerate on PS4, I'd buy all 3 again in a heartbeat.
XIII overheated my fat PS3 the second I got to Gran Pulse. After picking up a replacement, I still played through the previous 10 chapters over again because I enjoyed the game that much. No hate from Gaf will ever change the enjoyment I had with the trilogy. Lightning <3
Lumination
'enry 'ollins
My thoughts are only on XIII because I enjoyed that one the most of the three.
- Music
I think the XIII soundtrack comes second only to X. Hamauzu's strings put in work.
- Graphics
Beautiful locales. Sunleth Waterscape was an absolute joy to traverse. Most likely only possible BECAUSE you were on rails the whole time.
- Level caps
I liked not being able to overlevel. It didn't feel like a mash A cakewalk for most of the game. Compare to XIII-2 where you easily overleveled trying to capture a rare monster and spent the rest of the game mashing A.
- Core battle system
I liked it. There was a lot of optimization involved. You needed to maximize your damage during the staggered time frame while still defending against other enemies. A shame that the battle system is not realized for 90% of the game because it's basically a tutorial for the first 30hrs. I really enjoyed the initial Long Gui fights in Gran Pulse. To farm their drops while level capped, you had to really squeeze out as much damage as possible while they were staggered and switch to 3x Sentinel when you saw them stomp their foot to start the earthquake attack. I quite liked the dynamic switching between commando + buff -> 3x commandos -> 3x ravagers -> 3x sentinels with some healer loadouts mixed in. It felt really good when you hit a good rhythm.
Honorable mention to making buffs/debuffs and POISON worth using in a mainline FF game.
- Music
I think the XIII soundtrack comes second only to X. Hamauzu's strings put in work.
- Graphics
Beautiful locales. Sunleth Waterscape was an absolute joy to traverse. Most likely only possible BECAUSE you were on rails the whole time.
- Level caps
I liked not being able to overlevel. It didn't feel like a mash A cakewalk for most of the game. Compare to XIII-2 where you easily overleveled trying to capture a rare monster and spent the rest of the game mashing A.
- Core battle system
I liked it. There was a lot of optimization involved. You needed to maximize your damage during the staggered time frame while still defending against other enemies. A shame that the battle system is not realized for 90% of the game because it's basically a tutorial for the first 30hrs. I really enjoyed the initial Long Gui fights in Gran Pulse. To farm their drops while level capped, you had to really squeeze out as much damage as possible while they were staggered and switch to 3x Sentinel when you saw them stomp their foot to start the earthquake attack. I quite liked the dynamic switching between commando + buff -> 3x commandos -> 3x ravagers -> 3x sentinels with some healer loadouts mixed in. It felt really good when you hit a good rhythm.
Honorable mention to making buffs/debuffs and POISON worth using in a mainline FF game.
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