40°

Five Things We Hate About Final Fantasy XIII

Xboxist writes:

"Despite the hype surrounding Square Enix's new magnum opus, it isn't all kittens and rainbows in Final Fantasy XIII. Even the most ardent fanboy must admit that the game has some annoying flaws that keep it from being perfect. If you aren't quite ready to accept that the game is less than a masterpiece, perhaps you should check out the extensive list of things we loved about FFXIII. For those of you with cynical hearts and critical eyes, here is our run down of the things that we totally hated in this sorry excuse for an entry in the Final Fantasy series."

clinker5180d ago

Interesting that an Xbox site is recommending that people buy the PS3 version if they can... finally some honesty in games reporting.

Noctis Aftermath5180d ago

I agree with everything on this list, as a longtime FF fan i can only hope future installments don't follow XIII's example.

gaffyh5180d ago

Agree with the whole list, Vanille is f***ing annoying as hell. Voice acting for the most part is pretty good, especially Hope (Greg from Everybody Hates Chris), but Vanille's voice acting SUCKS. I'd also add some other stuff to this e.g.

- No FF battle tune at the end of the battle
- Not being able to change the characters in your party for AGES
- No proper character level system
- Why the f*** don't you get money from battles anymore???
- Graphics look good on faces, some body parts look horrible for a next gen game e.g. fingers look like they're made out of Jenga blocks at time.

It's still good, much more story focused than other FFs, but it feels completely different to every other FF, I'm kinda disappointed :(. It's still good, at least it is still turn-based, much better than anything else Square Enix has put out so far for next gen systems, but I hope Versus sticks with the standard FF formula.

hay5180d ago

Kudos for the author. It's refreshing to see not biased articles among this cr*p media tries to feed us with.

In the article I'd exchange towns with lacking storyline. Once chars forget there are people being murdered all around and laugh like nothing happened, sometimes chars float off in retrospection like in movies from 70's, throw really lame jokes. Some character development is artificial and hardly believeable. And that's just tip of an iceberg...

Bea Arthur5180d ago

Vanille actually doesn't annoy me as much as she seems to annoy everyone else. I find Snow more annoying than Vanille. Maybe that will change as the game progresses but 3 hours in she doesn't bother me all that much.

rbluetank5180d ago

i always like ffx because of the towns/story/characters. the amount of information leaked out on this game has changed my mind on buying this ffx13. i am glad i have better ps3 games to tide me over until the next AAA game. i might rent this game somewhere down the line...

Foliage5180d ago (Edited 5180d ago )

The second it was clear that the 360 version was going to be inferior, the North American media started turning on the game.

Don't take their whole campaign to tarnish the value of XIII seriously. It isn't such a bad game, the cinematics are actually pretty interesting. The level design is very good for a game that is fairly linear. The enemies also shine in this game, which is in part due to the scripting advantages of linear flow.

Personally speaking, I would have enjoyed a little more control over combat and various other areas of the game, but it isn't enough to ruin the experience IMO.

Just go into it thinking it is anything but a Final Fantasy title, and I think the title stands well enough on it's own. The spirit of Final Fantasy has always been about changing up the story/characters/worlds with each iteration, but people refuse to accept the slightest changes to the gameplay. Change isn't always a bad thing.

Again, it's fairly obvious that this game was being ravished publicly by committee. At the end of the day, ask yourself why their review scores still remained fairly high for a game they supposedly all hated. It's a smear campaign, that leads back to the very day that the 360 version was showing cracks.

Foliage5180d ago

Gears of War was the most linear game I've ever played in my life next to the original Doom, and I enjoyed it a fair bit. If there was a previous Gears before the first that featured towns, would I have liked Gears of War any less?

It shouldn't be enough of a reason to skip a game.

This coming from the same people who flame sequels for not being different enough...

Foliage5180d ago (Edited 5180d ago )

Fran was the greatest VO I've ever heard in a game. Her voice was astonishing.Incredibly original. I was hoping they would have used something on that level of originality with Vanille's voice. Although Vanille's voice can be a bit much at times, I appreciate that they didn't go completely Americanized with it. The worst thing in a Japanese translation to English is having American sounding people. It just doesn't fit the theme of the product. My biggest gripe to date with this was Cloud in Advent Children. I hated his voice completely enough to ruin the movie for me.

I think Evanna Lynch would've been the perfect person for Vanille's voice.

70°

The 7 Best Final Fantasy Characters: Unveiling the Legends

While FFVII ranks highly, there's more to the series than one game. Here's Chit Hot's picks for the seven best Final Fantasy characters.

220°

The older it gets, the more I respect Final Fantasy XIII

Alex Donaldson: "Hindsight is a hell of a thing, however, and in the years since Final Fantasy XIII, my respect for the decisions its developers made has skyrocketed. In the two Final Fantasy titles since we see both the brilliance and the folly in alternative approaches - and in Final Fantasy VII Remake, we get a more nuanced understanding of what FF13 was trying to accomplish from many of the same development leads."

Einhander1972145d ago

FFXIII is actually one of the best Final Fantasy games.

I also sort of was disappointed at the time, never as much as the bandwagon. But really all the fantastic 3D rendered cutscenes and I actually liked the characters and the story though convoluted was actually fantastic and the ending was extremely emotional. So much budget and time were put into that game Square had such big plans, I actually have always felt kind of bad for how things played out.

I have been thinking for years how great it would be to get all three games on one disk for PS4 or 5.

Nyxus145d ago

I always liked this game, and I agree, a rerelease for current gen would be nice.

Shane Kim143d ago (Edited 143d ago )

Gotta take off the nostalgia glasses. It's the worst FF. Shiva as a bike, I mean come on.

Elda143d ago

Shiva as a bike is strange but saying FFXIII is the worst FF is not at all a fact, that's simply your opinion.

Terry_B143d ago

*One of the 3 equally bad FF's

DivineHand125143d ago (Edited 143d ago )

When I got my series X a year ago, I bought FF13 for nostalgia reasons but ended up being disappointed. When I first played it around the time it launched, I didn't have a lot of experience with final fantasy games, so I enjoyed it. Fast forward to when I played it again, I found that the game had many unnecessary filler moments instead of just giving us meaningful content.

The game is also very linear and a quote on the article said it best. "It is like a sewage pipe that leads to the ocean until it opens up on Grand Pulse."

The story didn't make much sense either and I believe it is my mistake as I played the FF7 remake on PS5 prior which is a night and day difference in terms of pacing, storytelling and likeable characters even though cloud is aloof.

FinalFantasyFanatic143d ago (Edited 143d ago )

Probably was a mistake to play any of the golden era FFs first (e.g. FF6 through FF10), it makes it harder to enjoy some of the FFs that aren't as good. I think FF12 was where major issues with the series started becoming apparent, and it just got worse from there.

FinalFantasyFanatic143d ago (Edited 143d ago )

I didn't really care for it that much, the only saving grace was that it had a better story than 15 (overall it was better than 15) and possibly 12, and even then, you had to read some of it through primers, like reading a book. Plus the battle system was reasonably fun for what it was, even if it was more the spectacle that was exciting for me (e.g. summoning). And to be fair, the 13 trilogy got better with every games, I still don't like Snow though.

Gamingsince1981143d ago

Ff13 is only good if you haven't played a ff before, or any other games that are decent for that matter.

-Foxtrot143d ago

It is in fact no way the best Final Fantasy game, it's one of the worst

Linear corridors, Cutscene, Fight, Cutscene...rinse and repeat

Dialogue and characters are pretty bad, especially Lightning as the main FF hero, they literally said they tried to make a "Female Cloud" and they failed.

Story was pretty awful

I could go on

I think the only alright thing that came from the game was the music.

Elda142d ago

That's not a fact that's your personal opinion. The game sold 11 million copies between its 2009 release up until 2014 including critically reviewed as an 8 out of 10 or an 80 out of 100. The game does have some issues but it's not at all a fact as one of the worst FF games.

-Foxtrot142d ago

Elda

Not just mine mate

A large majority

So….

Traecy142d ago

N4G commenters such as yourself aren't the majority. The game was well received.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 142d ago
+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 142d ago
gold_drake145d ago (Edited 145d ago )

i liked the game alot but i didnt like how they handled the terminology.

i dont mind reading data logs but it had soo many.

but i always loved the music and how it looked. the battle system wasnt too bad either.

but i like 13-2 more :)

i still dont understand why we never got a remaster of the trilogy

Eonjay143d ago

Xbox kinda did. Besides the video files of course which are still best on PS3 due to bluray.

Snookies12145d ago

XIII is a pretty solid game, but XIII-2 is WAY better. XIII-2 was one of the few games I decided to go for a Platinum trophy in, early on. Had so much fun the entire way through getting it too!

Eonjay143d ago

Totally agree. FF 13 was okay but 13-2 is my favorite FF game ever.

shinoff2183145d ago (Edited 145d ago )

I hated this to when it released. I haven't much liked a ff game since ff10 as much , aside from ff7remake. I decided to give it another shot on my series x since it's not on a current ps and was liking it quite a bit(just takes me some time to get over things ) until star ocean 2 remake came out I was all over that.

Square should definitely remaster it or something for ps4 ps5

KillerB143d ago

my favorite jrpg trilogy ever

Show all comments (44)
70°

Interview: Making music with Masashi Hamauzu

Square Enix Blog: "How do you compose iconic songs that help define a legacy? We speak to legendary composer Masashi Hamauzu about his work on Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XIII, and Final Fantasy VII Remake, and how to make unforgettable music."

Read Full Story >>
square-enix-games.com