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Things you enjoyed about XIII Trilogy

Music was alright and I liked Fang's design. Aside from that I enjoy the fact that they're finally done trying to put that awful protagonist in every damn thing.
 
I actually loved the whole trilogy for what it was. None of them are Final Fantasy at its best, but they're all highly entertaining games. Here are some things I enjoyed in the three games:

Final Fantasy XIII
- The (idea of the) plot: yes, the execution is highly inconsistent, at best. But it has some really cool ideas. Also, it never bored me.
- The combat: one of the best systems in the whole series. Fun, engaging, pretty.
- The soundtrack: Blinded by Light is still one of the best battle themes in the series.
- The lore: Gods warring among themselves, creation myths, destiny vs. free will... again, the execution was lacking, but I was really engaged by the ideas.

Final Fantasy XIII-2
- The combat: it takes the best aspects of FFXIII's system and makes them better.
- The characters: Caius is one of the better FF villains in recent times. Noel is a pretty cool character. Serah was way more relatable than Lightning.
- The world: some places felt so great to explore. Academia, for instance.
- The ending: that took some balls.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
- The tone: everything was so exaggerated. The drama was over-the-top, the comedy was extremely silly, even some gameplay mechanics (like dressing up Lightning) were overly flamboyant. I just loved this game's commitment to being so noisy at all times.
- The combat: again, it felt like an extremely cool reinvention of what the former games offered. I ended up seeking out fights just because the combat mechanics felt that good.
- The world: it's the ugliest game in the trilogy, but the world was actually cool and it felt great to explore.
 
SDBurton said:
tumblr_n32dh8vOhH1s4kvc8o4_250.gif
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Fang's line to the group: "I'll tear down the sky if it'll save her."....WEW
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Lightning & Fang meeting at Palum Polum is quite a great moment.Both characters reflect on their positions up to that point in the game.

maxresdefault.jpg


Lightning also slapped the shit out of fang.

S5GkIfp.gif


God these characters were so much fun.lol.
 
I just bought all three games for the PS3 (this was before I found out about the Trilogy rumor) and this thread is convincing me to play them all. I never finished XIII and only got a few hours into LR before I had to leave for a while.
 
13 was a very gorgeous game at launch, I liked that about it. The music was also quite good, and I still listen to tracks from XIII's ost. The battle system was pretty fun, and looked great in action. And Fang was pretty cool too.
 
I like most of the cast really. Snow, Hope, Fang, in particular. Noel Kreiss is my fave FF protagonist and the whole storyline with him and Caius and Yuel is ace.

The soundtracks are amazing and Caius has my fave villain theme in the series by far.

The pokemon catching in XIII-2 was fun. I love most of XIII-2 in general except for the Quiz Master thing.

The setting in Lightning Returns was incredibly interesting and unique, a world that's been stuck in temporal stasis for like 600 years.

The audio callbacks to the classic series in Lightning Returns like the minstrels playing oldschool tunes (particularly that vocal version of the FFIII world map theme in Dead Dunes) and the coliseum audience singing the classic victory theme when you win were a great touch.

The combat system in all three games was stellar and was only really brought down in XIII by the way the mechanics were super slowly fed to you and your advancement was repeatedly capped off.

I liked how XIII gave you the encyclopedia so that it could get away with having characters talk about in-universe concepts more naturally without leaving you clueless.

HeelPower said:
Lightning & Fang meeting at Palum Polum is quite a great moment.Both characters reflect on their positions up to that point in the game.
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Roaringburn said:
I really like this scene from Final Fantasy 13. Made everything relatable, really showed the catch 22 situation Lightning and the gang were in, and the music was perfect.
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Palumpolum is probably my favorite section of the game? I dunno. The story at least, IMO
 
HeelPower said:
Lightning & Fang meeting at Palum Polum is quite a great moment.Both characters reflect on their positions up to that point in the game.

maxresdefault.jpg


Lightning also slapped the shit out of fang.

S5GkIfp.gif


God these characters were so much fun.lol.
Click to expand...

The whole game should have just been Lightning and Fang bulldozing everything until they meet up to help Claire save her sister and Fang save her wife, comparing their stock of badass one-liners as they go. I'd have enjoyed that alot more.

And Fang and Vanille should have been made an obvious canon couple because GOD all of their dialogue together was fucking awkward.

Edit:

Saber's Edge is one of the most hype inducing songs in Final Fantasy history

The 012 Dissida remix is even better

Made me go back to look up the composer and realize that he also composed the final boss theme for FFX too, which was also amazing in the same way
 
I liked the battle systems a decent amount and the overall story concept of the first game of people being branded by gods to complete fatalistic missions is a good starting point for a story. I believe the correct term for everything else is "gobbledygook".

Oh, and some good music too.
 
Another thing I loved:

Bhunivelze turning Pulse and Lindzei, the literal strongest gods he'd created - the major catalysts of XIII's story, into a double ended scythe to kill Lightning with.

That was a genius idea by the developers. So cool to see in action.
 
The combat, music and environments are all very good in the trilogy. Personally, the reason that I don't think that highly of FFXIII is that for a mainline FF, it failed miserably at living up to the legacy and the expectations I have for a mainline FF, and I'd definitely think of it more highly if it was just a new IP; it's sort of same way I feel about RE6 or even MGSV. They're average to good games in their own right, but they fail to live up to the legacy of their predecessors, and they'll always have a negative connotation because of that, despite being average to good games when you look at it as its own entity, and not a mainline FF, RE, or MGS.
 
XIII-2 was a very good game sandwiched in between a disappointment and a steaming pile of crap.

It's the biggest crime of the PS360 era that it wasn't named something...ANYTHING else.
Jrpg fans would have been singing that game's praises for the next decade if lightning and friends weren't shoehorned into what's the closest thing to Chrono Trigger 2 we're ever going to see.
 
Xiii:
Pretty graphics
Pretty CG
I like some of the characters
Fang is outstanding

Xiii-2:
Absolutely nothing
Fuck this game

Xiii lr:
Some of the vignettes are really good
Interesting gameplay outside of battles
Fang
Nice CG finale
 
CrichtonKicks said:
Thread is making me want to give XIII-2 a shot sometime soon.,
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you absolutely should do it.

here's my feelings on the game from shit...two years back?

sounds like a personal issue. XIII-2 was a response to developers actually listening to the fanbase and making the game fans claimed they wanted.

You don't like the cast? ok, here's two new characters and we'll improve some old ones.
You don't like 20 hours of tutorial? ok, everything is unlocked from the jump.
You don't like the party leader death meaning a game over? ok, we'll fix that.
You don't like not having HD towns? Ok, here's Academia, the most sprawling town we've ever made.
You don't like how XIII was one big corridor? ok, everything is non linear now, go explore.
You don't like the complete and total absence of sidequests? ok, here's sidequests galore.
You don't like only one ending? Chrono trigger was the best game ever? Ok, here's about 13 different endings, go find them.

XIII had a lot of problems, and one of them was that the lore and background were very much nonsense, with hidden gods and goddesses off panel that literally ran in to do a Deus Ex Machina. There's only so much you can do with what you're given, and XIII-2 going in a new direction with just about all of that, and becoming a game about possible outcomes and the role of fate in all that was a VAST improvement on the whole "Fal'Cie/L'Cie" issue that ran through it's predecessor.
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The only real complaint about that game is that it can be a bit on the easy side, but given that most FF's outside of XIII were laughably easy and few people EVER saw a game over this isn't really much of a complaint. There are DLC bosses that can be had cheaply these days as well if you're looking for extra challenge- many of them series favorites like Ultros.

it's the strongest game in the series by a lot, and really should have been a standalone game.
 
LordKasual said:
Edit:

Saber's Edge is one of the most hype inducing songs in Final Fantasy history

The 012 Dissida remix is even better

Made me go back to look up the composer and realize that he also composed the final boss theme for FFX too, which was also amazing in the same way
Click to expand...

And just think that the main reason Saber's Edge didn't have related musical thematic material is because Hamauzu wanted it to have the most impact when it was used by being unique. So cool.
CrichtonKicks said:
Thread is making me want to give XIII-2 a shot sometime soon.,
Click to expand...
XIII-2 is just a fun game. And it knows it that and goes with those expectations.

I also just really like Serah, a lot. She's probably one of my more fav. protags in an FF game. I have no idea why either, but I found her to just be enjoyable to play as.
 
The combat system. Hands down one of the best in a FFgame ever. Every ability has a purpose and you need to use all of them all the time. Before that point in the series the games were loaded with abilities that served no real purpose or were just outclassed by the attack command. Even summons, which were sort of useless from a damage standpoint, were useful as a free mega Phoenix.
 
Good music, solid overall art direction with a few standout elements I don't like, and great graphics for the time. That's about where my interest in XIII ends.
 
The combat system, music and graphics (at the time) were all top notch.

By the way, I'm only talking about XIII and XIII-2. I never played Lightning Returns and probably never will.
 
I have to wonder what the reception to this trilogy would have been had it not carried the final fantasy name. Either way I love the trilogy a lot more than other people. The story is pretty bad and I only like some of the characters, but the music, gameplay, and visuals are still a treat. My favorite was XIII-2, but I'm low key hoping for a trilogy remaster. I'd be there day one. I'll take backwards compatibility as a substitute though.
 
RyudBoy said:
The combat system, music and graphics (at the time) were all top notch.

By the way, I'm only talking about XIII and XIII-2. I never played Lightning Returns and probably never will.
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but Lightning Returns is the only game in the XIII series that isn't terrible. What a sick battle system. And it requires more than mash X, paradigm cancel, mash X, repeat.
 
Most unfairly maligned FF, IMO.

But here are some of my highlights from the trilogy:

FFXIII
-Plot was great for 2/3 of the game, and really did a great job building the main characters. The whole "enemy of the state" angle was really great and there was some interesting commentary about what makes a "terrorist."
-Audio/Visuals were spectacular.
-Summons that are Transformers. I always looked forward to a new summon to see their transformation.
-Battle system was awesome. I get why it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it had a nice ebb & flow flow with keeping staggers up, paradigm shifting at the right time, etc.

FFXIII-2
-GOAT video game soundtrack.
-It liberally steals the time travel system from Radiant Historia, but it works so well. Loved getting all the endings.
-Serah & Noel really grounded all the crazy shenanigans around them. Gave the series some humanity and relatability.
-Lightning's Valkyrie armor was dope.

FFXIII-3
-It's an honest to goodness Fashion RPG.
-Story, while a bit silly at times, was dark and explored some interesting concepts about immortality, spirituality, etc.
-At this point, I was just impressed they managed to squeeze out 3 distinct RPGs from the same source.
-It includes one of my favorite cut scenes from last gen. End game spoiler:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ2-6CxvSOc

I look back at my time going through these games with fondness. They were flawed, but I was connecting with what they were going for.
 
I loved these games and don't regret for a single moment double-dipping into each of them.

A game doesn't need to be perfect, or fit some ill-defined mold of what 'final fantasy' is for me to enjoy it. I loved the linearity of the first game, where going back made no point both story-wise and gameplay wise, then the sudden, open world of Pulse that helped drive home the indecision the characters faced.

Lightning Returns was dark in a wonderful, melancholic way that was reflected from every quest you did to just some dude singing in the street when you passed him. The timer also helped drive in the fact that, yes, the world is ending, and combined with the music, the tension that timer caused, the overall mood of the populace, certain quests, it was one of the first RPGs where I actually felt like the world is ending, and not 'The meteor is in the sky but lets go fuck around for 20 hours it will wait'.

The 13 series music is among my most listened to as well. I may just replay the entire thing next year just to experience it again.
 
Like:
Music
Some of the world design
I largely like XIII-2 and its plot and world
The ending to XIII-2

Dislike:
Snow
Linearity of XIII
The battle system of XIII and LR
The moogle voice localisation
Snow
The plots of XIII and LR
LR's time system, and it's overall horrible presentation
Snow


XIII-2 was by far the best of the trilogy, genuinely good game,
 
What I liked:

- The soundtrack
- Combat system
- 13 and 13-3 are among two of the nicest looking games from the last generation
- Caius is kind of goofy looking, but is a decent villian overall
- Outside of Snow, I liked most of the main cast of characters
 
Were the characters really THAT bad? Based on what I played, they were more interesting and fun than XII's cast, at least. On par with X's maybe, and the voice acting was better.



Thoraxes said:
Let's also take a second to mention how good the PC ports looked, and how much downsampling made it look good too!
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The PC version looks amazing to me, even better than FFXV (because of the art direction).
 
gfxtwin said:
Were the characters really THAT bad? Based on what I played, they were more interesting and fun than XII's cast, at least. On par with X's maybe, and the voice acting was better.

The PC version looks amazing to me, even better than FFXV (because of the art direction).
Click to expand...

That's an entirely subjective matter. But, from my perspective, the characters in XIII reached higher highs and lower lows compared to what I've seen in the series since FFVIII.

I thought that Lightning was a big improvement over protagonists like Squall or Tidus. She wasn't the most memorable character, but at least there was nothing off-putting or annoying about her. She was a decent character that had the misfortune of becoming the "mascot" of a very disappointing trilogy that overstated its welcome.

Sazh and Fang are legitimately two of the best characters in the series.

Vanille, Snow and Hope, on the other hand, are three of the worst characters in the series.
 
The real couple of this game is Fang and Vanille, not Snow and Serah.
 
- Lightning
- Fang
- CGI scenes
- Amazing OST
- Beautiful art and graphics
- Combat in the end game
- The idea behind the story was good

I like the FF13 games and I had fun. Except for Lightning returns.
 
pizzacat said:
People forcing themselves to like Lightning to annoy others to the point that they unironically call her queen
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You are a sad, sad person and I feel sorry for you

Seriously, Final Fantasy XIII is one of my favorites, I really enjoyed the character design, the music (oh god the music is awesome) and the cinematics

I agree, LR:FFXIII was not their best but I still enjoyed it.

Here wishing for a Ps4 trilogy re release
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_owwt-ZzV0

THREE
BAHAMUTS

I really cannot gush enough about how good XIII-2 was, and how it's more than a sum of its parts, even though the setting isn't developed well in the game itself, even though some writing is a bit too corny and even though the difficulty curve is undertuned. The first time I fought the final chapter series of bosses I was on the edge the whole time. Thoroughly incredible game that would've benefited massively from being an independent story without ties to XIII or LR.

The characters were level-headed, relatable and with clear motivations. The villain was sympathetic and cool. 100% collectathon was generally diverse enough to be entertaining (although Xanadu can piss right off). The character moments in Chapter 5 were genuinely great writing. It was a good game, my dudes.

Oh yeah, the arena mode intro cutscene.
 
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