Final Fantasy XIII.

* May contain spoilers!

When you consider the amazing Final Fantasy titles we've had in the past, this game is a disgrace in comparison. I honestly feel so disappointed and slightly angered by this game. Every once in a while, I come back and try to perservere.

The game is so linear, it's a line. A line where you can spam "A" and every now and again you hit "LB" to switch paradigms and you're back to spamming "A" again. I swear this game could be beaten using a turbo controller.

The game's main selling point was the cut-scenes. Literally half your in-game time is spent watching cut-scenes. The characters, however, are pretty diabolical so make 20 odd hours worth of FMVs extremely unappealing.

We have:

Lightning - "badass"? No. Try angry, emo mangirl with a very strange body shape.

Snow - "I'm a hero! I will save you all!" - white knight who is overly optimistic to the point he's annoying.

Sazh - ok, I'll give you this one Square Enix. Funny black guy with a baby chocobo nesting in his head. Reasonable, loving character.

Hope - that fucking name? He's more emo than Advent Children's Cloud! All he does is whine, whine and bloody whine.

Vanille - supposed to be cute, is actually an annoying little whore who implies Sazh wants her. She's supposed to be like 15. Sazh is middle-aged.

Fang - another semi-decent character. Annoying Australian accent - but other than that, she's pretty badass. Most of the time.

The game is also very repetitive story-wise. They constantly seem to be trying to achieve the same goal, whilst repeating dialogue simply worded differently. They escape, they're caught, they escape, they're caught.. blah blah.

I'm almost on Chapter 10 of 13 and needless to say, totally not impressed by this game. Apparently, Chapter 11 is where the "game starts and gets good" - are you kidding me? 17 hours of gameplay and 11 chapters later and it's just getting good?

What happened, Square Enix?

And then of course, there's XIII-2 and Lightning Returns which were never originally intended to exist. It wasn't part of the plan. Sure, they're probably decent games - but it's all for money.

So many players who had never experienced a Final Fantasy before adored XIII. They need to go back and play an actual decent Final Fantasy game! Play them ALL, then come back to me and tell me XIII's your favourite. Seriously!

I just had to get that out there. Posting it on TA would be a waste of time, you get shat on right, left and center for having a different opinion. Fanboys galore, wooohoo!

Seriously though people, I want to love this game. I WANT to. I just can't.

I played 7 and 9 and loved them, I've played through 9 a few times now, I spent about a month solid on that game in the 6 week school holidays way back when lol... then I tried 10 and hated it... then the next one too. The graphics are beautiful but I couldn't warm to the characters or the change in controls etc so I kind of gave up. I was planning on getting a more recent one, but after reading this I might just not bother and dust the ol' PS1 off instead lol.

I agree that 7,8,9 and even 10 were fantastic games. It would seem the bubble has burst for this franchise. Great post mate!

Aye I'm currently playing FF 1 on my WP7 and you can see the difference, more gameplay over story. But Square Enix have publically announced that they want to make more films and I guess that's what they're aiming at. I will say although FF13-2 does still have the ability to hammer through battles due to Relentless Assault, it does feel much more like a Final Fantasy game as far as the gameplay goes though I'm still to finish that one.

I am quite a big final fantasy fan, I was disappointed by XIII initially but it grew on me as I played it more and I ended up enjoying it doesn't come close to some of the better games in the series though think my favorites are 4, 7, 8 and 10

Below i'm going to list a brief summary for the main games in the series IMO, I don't think any FF game is bad but there is certainly a trend.

From the list below i'm sure I know where i'd go if I wanted a gameplay experience and where i'd go for a good story - FF XIII would be neither but for anyone who has managed their way to chapter 9 or 10 should definitely perservere to chapter 11 then beat the main story at least. It's the better part and if you don't do it the first 9 chapters have been for nothing


FF I - Great gameplay - basic job system is pretty cool
FF II - Unique game, not too fond of the upgrading system
FF III - An advanced update of the first game
FF IV - Great story line that doesn't affect gameplay be being present
FF V - Updated from the 3rd game, most advanced use of the job system and probably the most in depth, cliche story
FF VI - Heavy focus on story, gameplay still pretty good
FF VII - Good all-rounder but doesn't do anything exceptionally well
FF VIII - Good story, good behind the scenes battle system (junctions and GF's)
FF IX - Another decent all rounder
FF X - Story
FF XI - Decent MMO, used to take forever to level but I believe they fixed that
FF XII - Back to gameplay from story, gambit system is love or hate (never finished this one)

FF XIII - Story is mostly based around the characters, and the characters aren't that great, main story is fairly 'cut and paste' but for what it's worth the gameplay gets slightly better from chapter 11 until the end, then in end game the gameplay gets much better (though still not fantastic). It's just a shame people have to perservere that far to get to the good part, which still isn't great so abit of a let down for some.

FF XIV - haven't played

I haven't played any other than 7, 8, 9 and I think possibly 10. 3 of my favourite games in the PS1 era but never really bothered with the PS2 versions. Have had no real interested in the 360 ones too so will probably never play them. I did try the demo for 13-2? I think and found it a bit boring.