Only idiots blame the 360 for FF XIII's linearity

Destructoid: I got into various arguments with people this weekend who justified Final Fantasy fans hating the Xbox 360 because it apparently "ruined" Square Enix's latest hundred-hour monstrosity. Now, there's no denying that Final Fantasy XIII has its share of problems. Ahead of our review, I can tell you that this game boasts a variety of disappointing elements. However, there are those who legitimately blame the Xbox 360 and demonize it as the heart of XIII's troubles. After debating with several of these individuals, I have concluded that such people obviously know nothing about the game's development

[Hellsvacancy]

And there are those who cant take the truth and hav 2 write a ridiculous article explainin how we (not so much me) are all wrong

Im TOTALY not interested in FF13 and that was even b-4 it was announced as a multiplat title (and DONT no mofo tell me im wrong) i didnt even like the last 2 Final Fantasy games either, the last i played and liked was 10, the next is Versus

"the never ending final fantasy" (a quote from the legend that IS, my Dad)

[rucky]

Jim Sterling is an emo git idiot who thinks he's special. He's not a fanboy but he desperately seeks attention.

[van-essa]

The game was built from the ground up for the PS3 hence the sheer amount of CGI and the X360 has nothing to do with it being linear.

Games like Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Tales of Vesperia, Eternal Sonata, GTA, Oblivion, Fallout.. all prove that I'm right.

[SasanovaS1987]

he is a fanboy, and he is the single entity that is the cause of my carelessness for this article the second i laid my eyes on the source...sadly, one would think a website that sees how just 1 of their writers can so significantly spoil their whole reputation would result in his termination, but it just goes to show you how garbage of a videogame website destructoid has become, among the worst, like edge and other pile of doo doo

[Carlton Banks]

Is this Destructoid? That same site who tries to say a group of fanboys is worse than the other and gave Assassins Creed 2 a 4.5/10?

Lol Gtfo Destructoid you have no cred here.

[CrazzyMan]

The progress has just stopped.

Only idiot would think, that 10 years OLD media format(DVD) would be enough for TODAY`S gaming.

Also people are naive, if they think, that x360 hasn`t affected FFXIII development.
First FFXIII trailer was shown in Spring 2006, when it was exclusive for PS3. Game would be ready for the end of 2008 IF Square din`t have to make White Engine a multiplatform Crystal Tools engine.

MGS4 was first shown on TGS 2005(half year before FFXIII) and was released in summer 2008. Square are real professionals, IF Konami and Kojima were able to release their BIG game after 2.5 years, there was really NOTHING impossible for Square to release FFXIII in 2008(BUT it was time when game became a multipatform).

p.s. @van-essa, which of your listed games match FFXIII HD PS3 ver. graphics? NONE.

[Lifendz]

I'm not going to bash the 360 version because I seriously doubt that's why the game is so linear. I just wish the team hadn't scrapped what I loved about FF games (exploration, meeting NPC at my leisure, discovering new weapons/spells in towns or other locations, etc). I hear the game opens up later but why do I have to wait until 40 hours in to get what I wanted at hour one?

Sorry for doing this but I gotta mention the moment in Fallout 3 when you walk out the vault. It was just incredible. Nothing like a dev not forcing you to play a game how they want you to. I liken this to those moments in other FF games when first get to a new town. Maybe you'd head straight to the inn to see what's happening or maybe you'd prefer to head straight to the armory and see what's for sale. I loved that.

Now the game takes you down a straight path that you can't get off? It's not the 360s "fault" the game is so linear. It's the devs/game designers fault.

[WildArmed]

Why do I bother with stupid Destructoid articles?

I dont think anyone brought up 360 as the reason for linearity.
I've heard people say it's the reason for all the content cut, but thats all.

(which was probably just a scheme that SE came up with anyways, they just wanna charge us for DLC)

[phosphor112]

FF13 was made by the same designers as FFX. Remember that game? Extremely linear. Almost like FF13... INCLUDING things like the faux sphere grid they have in the newest one. They are very similar. Both made by the same people, and it shows.

[Lifendz]

It's not the 360's "fault." In fact, I'd say Square did an amazing job on the PS3 version: faster loads, much better visuals, one disc, etc. What did they sacrifice by putting the game on 360 also? Nothing.

[green]

FF13 is just an average game in regards to story,gameplay and exploration. Is it the 360's fault that square-enix could not at least write a good script for the game?

The games linearity is soo disturbing and people are quick to blame the 360 but are quick to forget that Lost Odyssey( which is way way better than FF13),Infinite Undiscovery,Blue Dragon etc are all on the 360 and have larger levels,towns, NPC you can interact with, side quests etc.The 1st 9 hours can be played by just tapping AAAAAAA though the combat gets way more technical later.So i guess the dumbing down of the controls for the 1st 9hours is the 360's fault as well.

I was really anticipating the release of FF13, even expecting it to surpass LO which is one of my top 5 best games this gen. But as of the 14hour mark, FF13 does not hold a candle to Lost Odyssey and it is due to the poor design,story and gameplay elements that Square enix made.

[blackpanther25]

Everybody keeps saying that final Fantasy XIII is horrible cause it linear but i just finish playing a bit of final fantasy X and that game is just as linear. They both open up towards the end

The only difference is that 10 has blitz ball and they have towns(that really don't do anything anyway).

I'm really thinking of getting Final Fantasy XIII but i gotta know how the story is. Is it the typical anime-like story that is super cheesy or is it actually good. Someone help me.

[Rush]

Am sorry but the article is right having invested 80 hours into Final Fanstasy 13 and loved every minute of it I can tell the reason the game is linear is because it's designed that way.

It's no more linear the Final Fantasy 10 anyway, People just like to give that game a free pass because it wasn't multiplatform. I love the game and honestly to me my favourite games in the series thus far are FF7, FF8, FF7CC,FF13, F10, FF6, FF9 and FF10/2 in that order.

And yes I own the PS3 version I ain't saying this to defend the 360 check my PSN ID: MenechUK

PS: can I please ask the people saying how poor FF13 is to post there PSN or Live ID to prove that there not just idiots talking smack about a game they haven't played.

[Cold 2000]

LO > FF13 in every way possible except for the graphics of course since it came out in 2008.

But yeah lets blame the 360.

And its CLEAR that most of the so called FF fans on N4G have NEVER played FF1O.

FF10 isnt an inch less linear than FF13.

Either you guys are 12 years old which explains how come you never got to play FF10, or just straight out ignorant gamers who have never touched a FF game.

[dougr]

I blame Square Enix more than anything. They told me all I needed to know about the amount of effort they were willing to put in the game when they gave there reasons for not having any towns in the game...

[smittyjerkins]

If anyone cared to actually READ the article they would see the point that Jim Sterling was making. Sterling was making the point that it wasn't the 360's fault it was Square Enix's own damn fault for developing FF13 that way.

Here is a quote of what he says, "You want to blame something for Final Fantasy XIII's issues, then you blame the people who were responsible. You blame Square Enix. Don't go making a boogie man out of a hunk of plastic and wires because you're too lazy and unimaginative to actually consider why the game has its problems. Square Enix made all the decisions here. It decided how to develop XIII, and it decided what systems to develop it for."

[menoyou]

only a moron would pretend games arent being gimped by the 360 when time and time again its been proven to happen

[Pika-pie]

Im still loving FFXIII regardless of what the critics say. It feels like an FF game through and through, music, story, battles, chocobos, characters, epic CG are everything I love about FF.

Im excited for Versus next, will be interesting to see what the do.

Regardless, they did cut a hell of a lot of content from release. Almost a full games worth according to an interview a while back. Was this because of 360 space limitations?? Probably not. More than likley a design choice. Maybe we will see the content they cut through DLC or a Special Edition.

[gaffyh]

It is not the Xbox 360's fault, it is Square Enix's fault for making the game overly linear. I'm ~23 hours (chapter 10) in and have not come into contact with any semblance of open world or a proper town. The game has been rushed (I know, even though it took ages to come out, it feels rushed).

Still it's better than anything else Square has put out this gen for HD systems.

[lelo2play]

Funny thing is when it was exclusive, it was a great game, after it was announced on the X360, it became crap. Now FF13 Versus is a great game, but if FF13 has good sales on the X360, Versus will probably be ported to the X360, and then it automatically becomes a crap game by some fanboys.

[sikbeta]

As usual, those IDIOTS @ Destructoid making articles like if they OWN the Truth, Lame...

-_-

[zane_7849]

Thanks for clearing up that thing I've never heard about. If anyone actually believes the 360 changed the structure of this game that much, then yes they are dumb/ignorant/grasping at straws.

[working4games]

Never heard anyone use the argument implied in this article. I thought the 360 was blamed more for the delay of the release and cut content of FF XIII(which at least partially gimped the game). Both of those reasons are legit at least. Another nice pro-MS, anti-Sony flamebait article, Jim!

[TheHardKore]

Read it so you'll feel like an idiot and shut up. And if you still keep talking crap like this then well your a blind fanboy.

[Gue1]

Well I thought this guy(Jim) was going to make another one of his rants about how the PS3 fanboys are the disease of the gaming industry but, it was a cool read... But still, what he is saying can't be proved for real either.

[bartkuz]

I playing this game for 10h now. So far i love it

[Eamon]

Hellsvacancy, why did you decide to post the article on N4G if you're not interested in FF13 nor do you agree with anything the author says.

You're a troll and a fanboy. You say you're not interested in FF13, so really, your only reason for posting this is to fuel the pitiful fanboy flamewar in the comments section?

To say you were never interested in it before it became Multiplatform is an insult to everyone's intelligence. Not only are you lying to everyone, but you are also lying to yourself.

You're a sad & strange person that needs to get out of your mother's basement before you become like this 'tard:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Consoldtobots]

"This guy is king at making ps3 fanboys rage... "

what rage are you talking about? I think most of us are laughing at another idiotic 360 fanboy whose so butthurt of this debacle that throws caution to the wind and shows HOW LITTLE he knows about game development.

[Hellsvacancy]

Eamon, u can kiss my arse ya stupid arse teenager, i posted the news coz i saw it, thought 2 myself *sum other mofos gonna post it if i dont* it wasnt even like i was lookin 4-it, i NEVER gp on Destructoid,

U can check my submission list, half of wot i post doesnt interest me none the least but just coz i dont find summin interestin doesnt mean no-1-else will, u clicked on it 4 a start

And oh, dont f-in well call me a liar ya mug, when ever ive spoke bout FF13 (read ALL my comments if u need 2) its NEVER been positive and thats because (bit of a lame reason i know) it looks like a girls game (much like X2 which i hated also), ive said it ever since i saw the 1st trailer, although Versus is the complete opposite(which excites me)

So bollocks 2 wot u think, i aint gotta justify myself 2 no -1

[Timesplitter14]

I think FF13 is amazing. People just get put off by the 10 hours introduction, but after that, it's one of my favorite FF games ever

[Eddie20101]

Kinda of silly to make an article on a subject that is not even been talked about very much if at all. I have not seen a single comment anywhere saying that making the game for Xbox 360 ruined the game in anyway or that that was the reason the first half is linear, It certainly didn't hinder the PS3 version, the PS3 does look a bit better than the Xbox 360 version overall. Both look great though.

Personally I like the game a lot.

[God_Of_Epicness]

It's Destructoid guys. The writer is the b@stard with the name of Jim Sterling. He's a 360 fanboy who doesn't want to admit that he is one. The day Xbox 360 wins the console race is the day pigs start to fly. And yes, pigs don't fly as a matter of fact.

[MNicholas]

is a serious limiting factor when games are as data heavy as FFXIII.

They designed it to limit the number of times you have to swap discs.

[execution17]

aren't most of them linear but FFXIII's only exception is it has no towns

[captain-obvious]

and only xbox fanboys would say something like "Only idiots blame the 360 for FF XIII's linearity"

[CimmerianDrake]

...are those who CAN'T see the OBVIOUS influence from the 360 on the game's development. Play the game, and you'll see it very easily.

*POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT* The first 10 chapters of the game play at the pace of an FPS, i.e. fast, short, and straightforward. Level grinding is pointless, as your progress is capped and tethered to story progression. You can only level up as the story dictates. Weapon upgrades are equally pointless early on, as the difficulty curve is random when it comes to enemies. Most are easy, with few exceptions. You find yourself using Auto-Battle all the time (a la Enchanted Arms) and there is little real strategy involved even in the more difficult boss fights. Making the game very easy.

Once you hit Chapter 11, the game becomes like Dragon Quest. The difficulty level is ramped way up, you have no choice BUT to grind, and that is what you spend most of your time doing. *END OF SPOILERS*

This is called an artificial gameplay lengthening ploy, FPS's use it all the time. See, in an FPS you can pretty much breeze through most single player campaigns on normal difficulty very quickly. The campaigns are short, ranging from 5 to 7 hours on average. The only way you lengthen that is by upping the difficulty to Hard or Very Hard. Even though no content is added, and the actual amount of game play hours remains unchanged, you take longer because the enemies are harder to beat. That's what FFXIII is like.

It's as though it started one way, then they said "F*ck it, let's start over" and did just that. The game is all over the place, if I had to compare it to anything else, I'd compare it Final Fantasy Spirits Within, i.e. it only has the name of Final Fantasy but that's about it. Little about the game is Final Fantasy at all. It is as far from being a Final Fantasy as it can get without changing the name completely.

You also take into consideration that SE have admitted to removing an entire game's worth of content from FFXIII, not to mention saying that they removed Japanese V.O.'s so that the PS3 version didn't have an advantage, and you can clearly see that FFXIII is gimped because of the 360 and Microsoft. The proof is absolutely everywhere. Play the game and you'll see it for yourself. No media is necessary, no insider sources, it's all in the game. It is unfinished, completely scattered in design, and not at all a Final Fantasy to be proud of.

[pixelsword]

I laugh, as a retard has to be smarter than an idiot to know the difference,.

To say the 360 didn't influence the PS3 development in SOME way is an idiotic thing to say. But regardless of how you feel about it, al will be known and clear when XIV comes out.

[meepmoopmeep]

you're only 13 hours so it's understandable.
i don't know if you've ever played a FF game but they basically are one button presses.

it's about the strategy on understanding what to use against an enemy and not a twitch shooter game.

the story starts off slow, but it ramps up around the 25hr mark. then when you get to the open world part it does a complete 180 and the roaming monsters will literally kick your ass if you haven't understood the battle, paradigm & character system by then.

[ShinRyuHadoken]

Jim Sterling should stop writing and actual play 50 hardcore games first before start writing again. This men write these ridiculous articles and calls himself a journalist? Everybody knows that FF13 was a lot better of if it stays PS3 exclusive. FF14 can be multiplat no prob. cause the 13 is just a port too 360. For gamers it doesn't do any good for playing a port game that is gimped and compressed too the max.

[97gsx]

I dont blame the 360 I blame square-enix. If they cut the towns,npcs,backtracking,side missions, and side bosses because it didnt fit on the 360. Then they should have known that from the beginning. This is in no way the 360s fault. The development of the game was entirely in the hands of square. If the game was modified to play for both systems then shame on square for selling out. Cant really blame microsoft for heating up the competition.

That being said the game is so-so the battle system is awesome the graphics too. But the lack of basic final fantasy staples destroy the game for me. Here are the obligatory ff13 pics to prove I actully have the game.

[Ravage27]

don't get me wrong, FF13 is Square's game and they should obviously take all the blame...but it's just naive to think that the multiplat decision had no influence on the final outcome.

I still think 360 owners are lucky that Kitase's team pulled out all the stops to prevent players from revisiting locations, the disc swapping would have been a hellish experience otherwise.

It's the convenience that got people thinking, but we'll never know the truth unless Wada goes crazy. At the end of the day though, all the decisions were made by SE and that's where the blame should be directed at.

[Rocket Sauce]

The Xbox 360 ruined Final Fantasy. It also took the last slice of pizza and ran over my dog. I think it had something to do with 9/11, too...

[Tapewurm]

The main 2 things that the 360 did is delay the launch and allow for an inferior version of the game to be a reality. All core Final Fantasy games have a linear story and this one is proving to be one of my favorites in the series. The new combat system is fresh and a lot of fun to play. The native 1080p graphics on the PS3 look amazing on my bravia tv and I have no complaints. The point of this article ... well there is none... written from the short-bus point of view and is basically there just to start some mindless chatter. :)

[bakasora]

Assume FF13 is still in development, the developers then decide to put in towns, mini games, side quests and whole lot of other stuffs that will make FF13 a true RPG. How would you fit in those contents into 3 DVDs. Don't give me the oh-because-of-the-story-you-ca n't-possibly-have-towns-and-sid e-quests crap.

[Thugbot187]

It wasn't the fault of the 360 the game was linear is 100% correct. The entire FF since I started playing them with V was linear with a somewhat open world at the end. In general this style of play was the standard with JRPG's and still has pretty much been that way. Funny thing is this was released in Japan first and they didn’t complain about the linear game, because it’s actually preferred. That's why you heard many Japanese developers saying we must innovate or do things we see being done elsewhere or else we will lose the world market.

Any how the 360 wasn't even announced or a part of what the game until after development had started on the PS3 and it was over half way. If anything you could blame the 360 for the delay in the release, but at the sometime they got a much longer chance to tweak the PS3 version and it shows. More fanboizium from people who just want to hate FF or the 360.

[starvinbull]

It reeks of 360 fanboyism but the central point is something I agree with. Square-Enix would have made a linear Final Fantasy with no towns or world map irrespective of console exclusivity.

Where the 360 certainly may have hampered the game is in it's content which was for some innexplicable reason cut to half. Had this content been present in the final game then the PS3 version would have had to be compromised much as it was on the 360 with a loss of quality in both sound and visual fidelity.

[vhero]

Ah I was gonna say 360 ain't to blame for linier in the game but graphic but then I read who wrote this... Destructoid are fastly becoming the BIGGEST 360 fanboy site on the web its sickening..

[N4g_null]

Sweet since the 360 was the reason why ff13 sucks then they can just release a collectors edition and put all the stuff in there that they left out. Problem solved. Yet i sort of think square was bluffing...lol saying they had to cut stuff. If stuff was cut then make it DLC or give us the new stuff on another disk at discount.

I sure square could use the sales.

[Ateanboy]

I agree... Im sure that those who actually read my posts have already acknowledged my position as a fan of the PS3 and a hater of the 360, but even I gotta say that this is completely ridiculous.

A real man keeps it real, and the truth is that the 360 has nothing to do with FF13s linearity. That is all completely 100% Square Enix's bad game design. 360 or not, the FF13 you see today is the game that Square Enix wanted to make. Point blank.

Now, if you wanna talk about the reason Japanese dialogue didnt make it to the American version, or the fact that it had to be put on 4 seperate discs on the 360 version, then yea, THAT is all due to the 360.

But I digress.

P.S.
F*ck Square-Enix.
RIP. SquareSoft.

[AAACE5]

You do realize how you sound right?

You say you totally don't care about FFXIII, yet you are the first one to post a comment! NUFF SAID!

You are usually one of the first to post on most articles, especially ones geared towards 360. Which is strange because you hate 360!

[Ateanboy]

Ahh man!!! You completely owned that guy!!! LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!

I hadda give you bubbles

[TROLL EATER]

well the charectars are fugitives in this game HOW can dey just go to towns.

[ps3hasonlyflopgames]

Only idiots ps3 fanboys blame the 360 for FF XIII's linearity

/fixed.

alot of ps3 fanboys people said ff13 was such but ff13 is amazing game..

only butthurt ps3 fanboys blame of this.

and if your a real hardcore j-rpg fan like most of the FF13 players get the version of 360 cuz have the same graphics,textures, sound etc of ps3 for sure.

nuff said.

[Hellsvacancy]

Oh dear, u REALLY r such an idiot

[Anorexorcist]

.

[Trebius]

Multi-plat development ruined the game.

Whoever says otherwise is just in denial.

Wake up and smell the blu-ray.

[jeseth]

While FF13 is great, the lack of "open-ness" is frustrating. While many, if not all, Final Fantasy games have been linear at the start .... FF13 suffers too much from it. While production values and other effects can fool the newcomers, Final Fantasy purists must be feeling a bit swindled by FF13. It could have been a lot better. Its a good game but thats it. Valkyrie Chronicles was better and its about 2 years old now.

But, even though FF13 is above average (at best), its okay because Kratos is coming in about 28 hours to get his revenge on olympus and zeus.

[God_Of_Epicness]

Forza is a flop you know that right? Anyway, you have bad grammar. Go back to kindergarten and learn b!tch.

This site is....Destructoid! And Jim Sterling has done it again! Why am i not surprised?

[shawnsl65]

Of course FFXIII is linear, all/most rpg games are like that (not counting mmorpgs)

I'm 52 hours in this game right now in the Pulse land.. those dinosaur looking creatures look AWESOME. (this is where the linearness dies out and it's open world/grinding like a mofo until you continue with the story.

Game has really good graphics (ps3 version; didn't buy xbox version so i dunno)

I mean just look at the details in the hair! Fang looks better than that blonde chick in Uncharted 2 period.

[tehReaper]

Forza isn't a flop. Just so you know.

[Tr10wn]

Ugh comparing a RPG to a racing game, a flop with 92 metascore and 2.3 million sold and won the best racing game of 09, yeah flop but yeah i enjoy playing forza 3 while i wait for gt5 you are playing what? let me guess what you gonna say "God of War 3" yup make perfect sense to wait a racing game playing a hack & slash smashing buttons game, and thats why i hate PS3 fanboys more than the others you guys just talk non sense and yeah only idiots like you said the forza is a flop and blame the 360
for FF13 linearity

[ravinshield]

Only idiots aka Fony fangirls blame the 360 for FF XIII's linearity

[Abash]

I don't get this Jim Sterling guy. He openly bashes the PS3, says he loves the PS3 but just hates Sony, and then posts an flamebait article that sounds like reassurance the 360 regarding FFXIII?

Can you just come out of the closet and say you're a 360 fanboy already?

[WildArmed]

All socom nick is trying to say is:

Jim sterling is just a big of fanboy as he is.

Which is fine.. fanboys are like c0ckroaches.. they'll survive even an atom bomb.

[Lifendz]

I really don't understand why someone who wants to be considered legitimate would spend even a second writing for or doing anything for fanboys. Focus on the gamers. Fanboys are some weird subset that don't deserve time.

These guys don't realize but the more they try to play fanboys against each other the more they come off like fanboys.

[Anorexorcist]

but where's the other, far more legitimate side of the argument?

"Only Idiots Say FFXIII Will Sell More on Xbox 360"

"Only Idiots Say FFXIII Is Superior on Xbox 360"

Claims like these by Xbox 360 fanboys are just as prevalent in forums as the claim that FFXIII was gimped by the xbox 360.

But of course, how can Jim Sterling possibly be expected to turn against his own breed?

[sikbeta]

The fvcking IRONY

socomnick, a Fanboy who also is a TROLL, talking about other fanboys...

@Lifendz

They do it cuz the fanboys give them Hits for every lame story the make, that's why this never going to End...

[ClownBelt]

Here he comes again. Destructoid don't get many hits without any flamebait articles...

[Silly gameAr]

Man I'm sick of this guy.

[ZombieAutopsy]

Knew it was Sterling.

[nogolis]

I don't blame the xbox 360 at all... I don't even blame Microsoft. I simply blame Square for being lousy developers who've gotten by on Final Fantasy 7's fame in hopes they make a game equal to it again. That, at its core, is what's really on everyone's mind. That's why people buy their games. They think that someday their next game will be the one that shines... Sadly, they never are.

Square sucks. Sorry.

[That_Genius]

Uh, Final Fantasy 8 and 9 were equally as good as Final Fantasy 7 so your logic is out the window.

And I don't know. I don't really blame Square Enix either. They create games based off what fans want am I right. And obviously the stupid people won out and got a linear game.

[CimmerianDrake]

Actually, SE are notorious for NOT listening to fans. They believe they know what people want better than the people who tell them what they want. Sure, there is a vocal minority that wanted FF to change, but the majority just wanted the same epic experiences we came to love with the older FF's. When something works, why mess with it? SE doesn't listen. They're so far up their own a$$es.

[kwyjibo]

...without actually stating any arguments against this.

Not surprised.

[Silly gameAr]

Pointless to argue. Our arguments doesn't matter to this guy anyway. He's always right.

[WildArmed]

No, not bashing Destructoid, just the guy who has earned quite a bad rep for his last few articles.

Which if you read, say something about the guy. So people are now just bashing the guy for his history and dont expect him to change. So they bash his current article w/o reading it.

Ofc, courtesy in journalism has died. Just reading his article makes you feel insulted.

[TheHardKore]

all the fanboys are doing is blindly bashing him because they think hes a fanboy. READ THE EFFIN ARTICLE HE HAS A POINT I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT HIM BECAUSE THAT DOESN'T MATTER. He doesn't even praise the 360 so how does this make him a fanboy? -_-

[Silly gameAr]

You're right Hardcore. I didn't read the article. I made the mistake of reading the last few articles this guy wrote.

Maybe when he has something worth reading I'll take a few minutes, but until then, I'll leave that to his cronies and followers.

[Al Bundy]

Square had to cut 15gb of data from the Xbox version for a reason.

[SOAD]

They didn't cut the data, they downgraded it and compressed it so it would take up a smaller size.

The 360 US version and the PS3 US version are identical in content.

The PS3 US version has higher quality cutscenes as opposed to the downgraded Bink video that the 360 version has.

In terms of space, the biggest issue was the cutscenes. Creating a large open world environment doesn't require that much space, as evidenced in Fallout 3 and Oblivion both occupying one DVD-9 disc.

Cutscene heavy games will always be a problem for the 360's DVD-9 limitations.

[JOHN_DOH]

fallout and oblivion use something called speedtree or something which is why all the outdoor environments look the same. play oblivion than play morrowind and you'll see how the areas in morrowind look different depending on the area you're in (morrowind only ran on pc's and xbox1 that had a hdd)I dont think ff could get away with using something like that

[CimmerianDrake]

SE admitted to cutting out a full game's worth of content, and the only reason they would have to do that is because it wouldn't fit on 3 discs for the 360 version.

[NotSoSilentBob]

I haven't liked a Final Fantasy since 6, Square Enix has truly killed the greatest game their ever was. I tried 7 but it was to much technology based. 8 never had my attention 9 looked like it was ment for kiddies the way the people looked. And X/X2 just never had time and after not being interested in the last 3 didn't waste my time or money.

[BigMassacre]

Final Fantasy IX was made to have an old school Final Fantasy look and feel. The character designs were made with that in mind. Deformed heads, a black mage, etc.

It's that type of attitude why Final Fantasy IX was sadly overlooked by many so called Final Fantasy fans. It really was the better game between itself, VII and VIII.

You really missed out there.

[aaronisbla]

9 meant for kiddies? damn dude, way to miss out on a great game, better than the other ps1 titles in my opinion. I say this because ( not including FF tactics ) FF6 was my fav of all of them and FF 9 brought back that feeling that 6 gave me.

Sucks you judged a book by its cover, missed out on a gem

[mrb3ar]

agreed, FF 9 was a great game, and went for an old-school feel. They were smaller characters and didn't have the same art-style as 7 or 8, but it really was a fantastic game. You should go back and give it a try, you won't regret it.

[Omega4]

The PS3 is to blame, if it wasnt so hard to develop for SE would have had more time to make more towns, the 360 has nothing to do with it.

[Dance]

360 seem to be the new scape goat when things start going wrong

[InfiniteRetro77]

wow, i love the hilarity of that lol

[damnightmare]

lol Why is everything I read from Omega in the Gamer Zone?

[NotSoSilentBob]

wow bungie getting desperate

[ChickeyCantor]

"SE would have had more time to make more towns"

Yeah cause an artist totally gets screwed over by the coders....

[Dance]

Kudos to Destructoid

[Staircase]

Final Fantasy needs towns. It's an RPG based on NPC interaction, and always has been. When you take the NPCs out, you're left with mindless fighting.

I am really enjoying it, but for some reason it just doesn't feel like an RPG to me anymore. It feels more like a turn based action game.

I also think they need to bring back the overworld. Would add so much to the game.

[LinuxGuru]

Final Fantasy XIII is linear for probably many reasons, and unfortunately we know for a FACT that the 360 version is of a lower quality due to the storage limitations of the DVD medium, so it's only safe and logical to assume that the game design at its core was affected as well.

Self-Destructoid

[ChickeyCantor]

I dont think you are right.
MS could easily provide other content trough downloads.
Thats what they usually do.

[Aery]

Please, play the game (if you like), but don't waste your time with this article/people. Really.

[zack61]

Blaming the games inferiority on a console it was released on is pretty friggin idiotic.

Two of my buddies are playing this on both systems, neither have problems or care what console the other is playing it on.

People gotta stop bringing in this random hate towards other consoles, they just sound like a bunch of bitter losers that aparently cant stfu and just play.

[LinuxGuru]

You do realize that there are distinct differences between the versions, right?

Also, it is perfectly plausible to blame a game's inferiority on a particular console if it is the truth.

In this case, the limitations of the DVD medium are to blame, not necessarily the 360 itself.

Although, since the DVD medium resides within, and is used by, the Xbox 360, the blame gets transferred to the console as a whole.

Understand?

[MajestieBeast]

Zergling defending the 360 now thats something you dont see every day...

Im sorry but when they have content running on the ps3 and suddenly it gets cut for no reason thats fishy. Hell on 3discs they couldnt even get the game to run on 720P that speaks for it self.

[TheGrimReaper]

sorry but you're not trying to say that the resolution of the game depends on the storage format? This is simply false.

[CJJA]

thats why in jap, its exclusive and better than the US version. they had to use a multiplatform engine to make it for US. therefore, it coulda been better for ps3 owners.

[saint_john_paul_ii]

its the same engine from the JP version for the PS3 version.

the 360 version is a different version.

[Staircase]

I think what some people don't realize is that content gets cut out of every game. Lots of it. It isn't always a matter of space, time, or development, but sometimes it just doesn't fit in the game, or the idea doesnt come to fruition.

A lot of times, after the game is completed, developers have this free time able to devote themselves to cleaning up the cut content so that it fits and is ready to go, which is why we so many "CUT CONTENT DLCs." It's not as sleazy as it sounds to make cut content a DLC, when in the past these ideas would just be thrown away.

Unfortunately, it looks like that will be the case for FFXIII, but it's nobody's fault. They have like 5 other games they're working on right now that time needs to be dedicated to.

[catch]

If they think it is good enough to sell then it should be good enough to include on the disc if it is done. So that really is shady business especially when it is already on the disc and you pay to unlock it like what 2k did in Bioshock 2.

In any case I do agree that the 360 isn't to "blame" (I think the game is amazing and the linearity only occassionaly gets tiring) That said this guy is worthless as a person and needs to cut it with his flamebait articles and reviews.

[dktxx2]

Writing an article debating the logic of fanboys is like playing basketball with midgets. You're gonna win, but you still suck at basketball.

[LinuxGuru]

lulz.

[simplyRealistic18]

they had to minimize some aspect of the game because the more they put, they would have to pay for the 4th disc if it went to that,

the whole FF13 being on the 360 thing i really don't care that much, i think what ps3 fanboys care about the most is that SE haven't given any ps3 treatment yet and when they finally do they send to the 360 also, they made like 3 or 4 game for the 360 already

the other reason i think they went to the 360 is because they had to recoup on the money they were putting into it, they already stated that when sony announced the ps3, they pushed back the release and development of the game to get on the ps3, so they had to spend more money on the game, and they had to make money so they decided to make for the 360 also

truthfully im pissed because what i love about FF is the exploration and some of the story, and im more pissed because of their excuse for not making it more expansive, there is no reason why Mass Effect 2 has a whole galaxy to explore but FF(which is known for that) is linear(for most of the game, i know grand pulse is big) and they said they **COULDN'T DO IT****

***EDIT***

if you want some one to blame, then blame SQURE ENIX, they use so much data on bull**** Cut scene that they dont have any space left on the dvd( lol 360 & its dvd), if they knew disc space was a problem then focus on more gameplay and less hd cut scenes unless it an important cut scene, if hey knew that would hinder their gameplay then f the cut scenes because Mass Effect 2 didnt have that problem, if i want to watch HD CUT SCENES i would watch a movie

**POINT OF THIS COMMENT IS THAT EVEN THO I DON"T LIKE HOW MICROSOFT DO THINGS, BLAME SQUARE INSTEAD, NOT THEM**

[GeoramA]

Defending his precious 360.

What a tool.

[ReBurn]

Doesn't make him wrong.

The tools are the ones that complain that the 360 is gimping their games, even though there's no law that says superior hardware can't have better games in a multiplat scenario. It's a choice the developer makes, not the console manufacturer.

If these developers were all about their creative vision and love for their fans then they would stick with the hardware that lets them express themselves to the fullest. But they aren't all about that. They're all about making money so that they can keep making games. So it is their choice what to create and what to cut. Blaming a console manufacturer is just stupid when it is the developer that chooses their tools.

[CaulkSlap]

Whatever. Multiplat was a death sentence. They obviously made all kinds of design changes and compromises to make it a multiplat. Delayed the game and made it far worse overall.

[ReBurn]

If it's so obvious, then exactly what changes did they make?

[LehJavier]

Yeah, Idiot PS3 fanboys.

[maniacf40]

oh wait.......................

[saint_john_paul_ii]

if there's anyone to blame, its square Enix for taking money bags.

we will never know what would of happened if the game had stayed exclusive on the PS3.

[ReBurn]

Listen to the Pope. He speaks the truth.

[games4fun]

1.only idiots make articles calling people idiots. you alienate the people you are trying to reach making you preach to the chior(correct word?).

2. I find the linearity a reasonable conclusion to make. The 360 hardware has limited DVD space, if SE forced there devs to make same game only using 3 discs its the result of not being able to fit towns in, also it is very supsect to have such small narrow gameplay that conviently opens up later for the last disc.

Anyone stating other 360 rpgs have it, might want to notice they dont have cgi movies(# of them), and the graphics ff13 is currently running even if it may be a lower res port are taxing on space.

If you were on the dev team do you really think making a more linear FF is a good move. And again why would they have coded towns or the place to explore like the zoo which would still keep with the plot of being an outlaw on the run and no side missions?

[jack who]

lets read plz

[PeptoBismol]

lets send you back to pre-school plz

[JonnyBigBoss]

Leave it to Destructoid to call people out and insult them.

Final Fantasy XIII is the first FF to be on a western console. It's also the first to receive such radical changes. Makes sense to me. Thanks for calling me an idiot Mr. Journalist.

[bjornbear]

i totally agree

if looking at the situation, the reception and the quality of the game shows me that this is the weaker FF in the past 10 years, then I am led to believe 360 has something to do with it

if that makes me an idiot according to an idiot, then i guess thats a compliment

[ReBurn]

What in the world did being "on a western console" have to do with it?

[Abriael]

There are few more satisfying things than getting Jim Sterling so butthurt that he'd write a full wall of text just to insult you :D

I claim full dibs on the deed :D

[Kushan]

....well done, you've just done exactly what the author wanted. You've seen the title, got all worked up, clicked the link so you could laugh at his idiocy and given the site another free hit.

Seriously, if articles like this bother you, the best way to deal with it is to just avoid it. I personally think that everyone's entitled to their own opinion and, similarly, you're also entitled to ignore that opinion.

[Optical_Matrix]

How did I know this was a Jim Sterling article. His rants about the games problems is what threw me. He clearly doesn't like JRPG's and he clearly isn't clever enough to play another beyond a shooter. FFXIII's combat system is far from convoluted. It's one of the most indepth and robust battle systems in any RPG to date and is what is expected of a next gen RPG title. This guy is a goon through and through. 360 and PS3 fans a like shouldn't give this fool the time of day. He just throws his toys out of the pram for the whole article. F*ck this and sh*t that. Grow up sterling.
Not to mention how he says SE opted graphics over everything else...since when :/ FFXIII is a stunning game but to say they opted for graphics over gameplay is ludicrous when games such as Uncharted series, Killzone 2 and God of War III exist.

[1nOnly]

I really dont understand the problem people got with this game. I was b!tching about before it got released but now that I'm playing it I'm having one hell of great gaming time that I havent had for some time. The game is one of the best looking game this gen and if someone thinks that making a 60h long game with those graphix and with almost no backtracking whatsoever doesnt compromise other things then thats just stupid.

You can ignore that guy Jim all you want but I really wonder what SE is thinking on developing three games at the same time that takes over 5years to develop. the DVD may be last gen and I fully support the thought on that Blueray is the new standard but good games are still being made and its not like they fitted the game on one disc.

Honestly this is the only site with so much ignorant fanboy talk I've seen. How old is the majority of this community really??

[Lucreto]

Didn't read the article I don't want to give Destructoidhits.

I used to be the one who blamed 360 for the linear design but not anymore. As like a lot of others believed that FF games are the first RPGs to push the playstation. Them when FF XIII was announced for the 360 it was thought it was dumb down and blamed SE.

I love the game and the linear design does not annoy me as it fits the story.

[despair]

the one major point he conveniently forgot is that the x360 is on 3 disks which make open world impossible or too tedious to do with disc swapping.

Also the fact that SquareEnix said that a lot of content was cut from the game albeit probably just great ideas that couldn't make it and who knows maybe open world was one and the 360 saw that idea out the window.

I can't believe that i read that garbage why do i still fall for these bullsh#t articles...sigh.

[Allowen]

I remember an interview with one of the main ID Software dev that he said that the game Rage since it is an open game it would be too hard to split it in several discs since it was an open game.

So in the end Rage will be in two DVD9 on the Xbox360 ,one for the single player mode and one for the online.
The point is, this game was planned to be around 30Gig of size and now it will have to fit in one dvd9( single player)and because of that I assume that the game might be smaller or less quality graphics to be able to fit on the disk.

On the other hand that same dev that are also working on Doom4 he said that since this Doom4 is not an open game but it has stages they could split it in several DVDs if needed more easier then Rage even when it has better graphics.

My point is that if an open world game is so complicated to split it bettewn TWO DVDs I can imagine that it would be even harder to do it in 3 or 4 DVds .
Just maybe SE decided to change their game in a way they could split it in a few disks and still be playable without requiring instalation.

I do belive that this FFXIII might had recived a "change" so it would work on the Xbox360 since it is a console without mandatory instalation on the HDD and has no blu ray disk drive.

[lonix]

Were blaming it for the lack of towns!

[PirateThom]

Yeah, Final Fantasy X was linear as hell, was only one disc, but it still had towns.

Claims that "towns are hard to build in HD" are absurd. It's an area where nothing happens with people wondering about and a few shops, maybe a quest or two. It's "downtime" between more running

[-MD-]

Truth.

[bjornbear]

Lie.

[Nathan Drake2]

metacritic

FF12-92
FF X-92
FF IX-94
FF VIII-90
FF VII-92

FF XIII(PS3)-83

[abcd]

FF 13 >>>>> FF 12

[PirateThom]

Completely unwarrented too. I truly believe FFXIII is maybe the best game in the series since, maybe, VI and, definitely, since X.

This may be an unpopular stance on it but it's good to the point I would love to see what it would have been had it remained exclusive and had no limitations to worry about.

[bjornbear]

its that joke site i never check out

why did i click on this link!! WHYYYY

oh well...

[stridershoge]

I understand not agreeing with someone's opinion but there's no reason to call them idiots, it only makes it seem personal like they are attacking your favourite console.

[abi980]

ps3 gimped itself

[divideby0]

we clearly dont know the extent of which going mulitplatform hindered the PS3 version, but you have to be an idiot if you think it did not hinder the PS3 version.

I am playing through FF and I really do have to question, the underlying development plans for the game...they said the game is linear to keep the gamer on track with the story and path of the game, but all the battles I have been in (4 hrs into the game) are about 1 min long..than the loading screens..that to me is killing the flow of the game...this is not related to the game going multiplatform, just kin of wierd for me.

[ReBurn]

I guess these comments on this article prove that the author was correct. The idiots all seem to be checking in. With their normal ad hominem attacks. Pathetic.

This game was made better for the PS3. It took advantage of the storage space of Blu-ray and really showed the advantages there. It runs at a higher resolution on the PS3 and overall just seems to be the better version.

The technical limitations of the 360 being apparent, the things that one would expect to be sacrificed were sacrificed. The audio and video are of lower quality and the game ships on multiple discs for that platform.

But anyone who says the overall design of the game was sacrificed for the 360 is an idiot, just like the author says. The PS3 was the lead platform and based on the countless articles posted to this website about it the story and overall design were complete before the decision was made to go to the 360. So even if there were no 360 version the game still would have been linear. Square Enix themselves said that creating cities was too expensive.

If you like the game, then play it. If you don't, then don't buy it. That simple. No sense whining for what might have been.

[PirateThom]

Square Enix said the thing about cities pretty recently though, it's hard to say if it was because of FFXIII not having them or if it was genuinely the case.

[Lon3wolf]

if indeed some people are blaming the linearity on the 360, does that mean even though FF13 has been in for production so long they scrapped the open ended world just to accomodate the 360? I think not, as pointed out before this is from the same people that made 10 another linear FF experience.

Enjoy the game or not on your chosen platform it's basically the same game with the PS3 ousting the 360 in the graphics dept.

Now wheres Resonance of Fate thats looking more like a decent alternative to FF13 for JRPG fans.

[n4gno]

Without reading, only with that title, i knew it was jim sterling or other fanboy's article :)

just don't read that kind of ridiculous and biased blogs..

[Eternally33]

Its just a fuc! in the as!, of course 360 was the big problem XIII got ruined.

[TapiocaMilkTea]

The game is great! Just played it for a few days, and I really like the linearity, no need to stumble into traps and waste time in dungeon going in circles and getting frustrated fighting the same enemies over and over again. I think this is the way to go for future final fantasies, skip all the tedious traditional JRPG crap.
Towns are overrated, now we don't have to talk to useless NPCs or find random loots in barrels scattered around town.

The game is so linear yet it promises 30 hrs+ of gameplay with tons of cutscenes and CG awesomeness.......why do gamers complain so much?!

[DJ]

And only idiots claim linearity is bad. Without some form of linearity, a game simply lacks focus. Even the biggest sandbox titles that claim to not be linear, such as GTA IV, Mass Effect 2, and Heavy Rain, still have some form of linearity holding a sequence of events in place.

That's completely natural, and there's nothing wrong with it. Can you imagine just walking through a completely open world where nothing really happened and you had no clue where to go because you didn't have to be anywhere? That's flat-out boring.

[mrmikew2018]

Well I hope he's being sarcastic, if he's journalist, shouldn't he keep his personal feelings to himself?

[tunaks1]

this is true, seriously if its a bad game its Square fault

[Biggest]

I don't see how the linearity is a problem. It is a Final Fantasy game. They have been like this for years. So what you're missing towns? You don't do crap in them anyway. If there is anything I miss it is item collecting and leveling up. But FF games have started this way since at least VII. It's still one of the better games released this year.

[mrmikew2018]

I'm loving the game so far. Jim Sterling come on bro, you should know better to write something this foolish. There's really no point this article, you sound like a dumb fanboy trying to defend their system.

[AKS]

Then I guess you skipped FF XII. It offered quite a bit of freedom and was my favorite since FF VI. But otherwise yes, they tended to become more linear like VII and X.

[ShinGundam]

The problem is FF13 lack a lot of content not just TOWNZ and mini games
but they didn’t provide a lot of Key events on this game and they
relied on Datalog and web novels to provide this events. FF13 retail
plays exactly like second disc of Xenogears.
Final Fantasy episode zero should be renamed episode 1
http://dilly-shilly.blogspo...

[The Iron Sheik]

Only idiots read Jim Sterling's articles.

[unworthyBOZO]

Somebody give this man a cookie.

[karan8624]

But Ill give him a bubble

[Rageanitus]

and quite honestly it took me 2-3 hours to really get into it...

This is the firs FF where ive seen you have to really look into building your charaters and items properly and even in that case you have to attack based on planning and TEAM work.

It seems they put alot of work into a game where you simply cant get by with POWER leveling your character.

Yes the game is linear... and quite honestly im quite sure xbox's limitations had a say in the level design also..... case and point where are the towns? and what happened to back tracking levels.... In this case I can honestly say it would have been impossible for xbox due to the problems of multidiscs and problems of creating redundant data over multiple disks wihtout manditory HD install.

Im not a game designer but it doesnt take rocket science to understand the concepts of memory usage over multiple discs... Now had the game not had lots of videos we could have easliy seen towns for both the ps3 and xbox version.

I am really liking the game mechanics of the fighting but it kindov bugs me there is no backtracking in the game. It seems they coverted standard jrpg into a stright foward fighting game with rpg elements.... mabye its to accomodate the NA market.

[authentic24]

The minute a game goes multiplat no matter what system it is minus PC's for obvious reasons, cuts into resources that otherwise would have been place on the exclusive title. That is why no multiplat game will reach the quality of exclusive games.

It's not that the game is linear as most final fantasy games are, the lack of towns in a game where u can do little side quest tricks the player into believing it is not linear and allows you to do other things at your leisure. Anybody who believes that being multiplat doesn't hurt a game doesn't know a thing about game development. Journalist or bloggers can talk until they are blue in the face, but until they see how these games are made, articles like this shouldn't exist.

[C L O U D]

Most FF games were linear anyways, but i must admit XIII is a bit more vivid because third person camera does makes it seem so.

Reminds me of FFX but thats good for me.

[Figboy]

and why do they have such a yearning for the shaft of Microsoft in their mouths?

seriously. you can't criticize a SINGLE thing about the 360 without Jim Sterling to the "rescue," writing a "humorous" and "sarcastic" post about why you should NEVER call out MS, and if you do, you're a FANBOY, as he proceeds to wank to pictures of Master Chief.

i hate to be crass, but i think destructoid is possibly one of the WORST gaming sites on the internet.

they give gaming journalism a bad name, and they are horribly unprofessional.

Sony and MS are worthy of quite a bit of criticism, as is Nintendo, but Jim Sterling especially has a bone to pick with Sony, and that's evident in EVERY article he writes.

thank god he didn't get the God of War 3 review, but i'm sure he's already prepping his "editorial" about how GoW3 "Ain't All That."

why even give these losers hits? i'd be just as irritated if it was the other way around, and they had a bone to pick with MS, while licking the nuts of Sony.

what i would LOVE to see in gaming journalism these days is SOME semblance of integrity.

fanboyism is expected in forums and fan outlets, but these guys are supposed to be reporting gaming NEWS.

all that Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft fans want to know about are the games. we don't need any smartass, smarmy, hypocritical asides. just bring us gaming news, and keep your own personal bias to your Live Journal account.

this generation has been absolutely UNBELIEVABLE when it comes to gaming journalism. and sites like 1up, IGN, and Gamespot are not innocent either.

maybe it's a combination of this sh*t economy, and sites are being money-hatted by various publishers/manufacturers to stay afloat. i understand that, but that just means that i'm going to go ELSEWHERE for some real gaming news.

a lot of those no name blogs that get sh*t on here on N4G often have a lot more integrity and honesty than the "big name" sites that boast advertisements for a game that they've been pimping already for a year or two.

and to stay on topic, i can't say if the 360 is the reason for FFXIII's linearity, but i remember a lot of comments from the developers about it's potential thanks to the Blu Ray disc, and how they were able to realize their "vision," thanks to it, and the then PS3 exclusive White Engine.

the 360 would have had issues with FFXIII even if it WASN'T linear. it actually would have had MORE issues, i'd think. Jim Sterling, be grateful you even get to PLAY FFXIII at all. shut up and cuddle your 360 and Halo plushie. we don't need you "defending the honor" of the 360 version of FFXIII with your drivel. i've never seen you run to the defense of any Playstation 3 multi-plats where the hardware was blamed for any issues with the game, instead of poor design decisions/inefficient coding from developers.

[maxcer]

he's calling like it is, ps3 fanboys have had this perception ever since the game was announced for 360 at E3. I guarantee if VS. gets a port to 360 it will also be labeled as gimped and not what it could have been. You see if they keep spewing the bullsh*t as fact people will start to believe it, when in fact they don't know what there talking about. I see it everyday when i read articles here on n4g. the truth hurts, but don't take it personally it just a fuc&ing video game

[foxxy]

Is you cant go to towns have you played the game? Its a part of the story Best final fantasy i have played alot 2 7 8 9 10 12 13 is on a whole another lvl but my boy got a 360 and it does look gimped compared to my ps3 version the textures are fudged up.

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

Just because is the Inferior version, is complaining.

If the Article say Jim Sterling as the Editor in Destructoid.
Well, you skip that article, that's all.

[Justin_bristoe]

you mean the way capcom said lost planet2 had to be cut in half because of problems with the dvd and the next day said oh wait it's not because of the dvd?

silly stupid head,square also said they cut out so much of ff13 that they can make a whole new game out of it!...and then went on to say both consoles will have the same game experience. u tell me whos the idiot

[Bathyj]

Only an idiot would think making a game on DVD didnt affect design choices.

[Claudinho69]

i blame the 360

[DigitalAnalog]

Why has the gameplay changed when I watched the original E307 trailer with the current game right now?

-End statement

[AKS]

I'm not familiar with this Jim Sterling character, but I can't say I'm particularly impressed with his writing or cognitive abilities.

I will agree that it's clear Square Enix didn't hold back techically in making the game look and sound incredible on the Playstation 3. It's a title that stuns the senses on my home theater. No argument that the PS3 is clearly lead and looks and sounds incredible. Everything regarding the presentation is of excellent quality.

Regarding the 360, it's not necessarily the 360 hardware's fault regaring the linearily. Clearly it probably didn't upset the guys trying to code the game into a multiplatform format that a linear structured RPG fits onto the discs easily, but the wider the issue is Square Enix attempting to appeal more to Western audiences. Making a 360 version of the game is a function of that sentiment. Square Enix decided to try to make a title that was more to Western audiences tastes.

Let's also take some of this responsibility ourselves. Square Enix and partner Level-5 made Final Fantasy XII and Dragon Quest VIII last generation and they didn't thrive quite like they should have despite being so good they brought back nostalgia from the SNES golden age of JRPGs from my youth. They felt they had to try a different approach to get the sales they needed from such a massively expensive project like Final Fantasy XIII, so they tried something different. If JRPGs were selling like Halo or Call of Duty, they'd continue to give us what we were accustomed to getting from previous JRPGs, but they just aren't. It saddens me; I grew up playing JRPGs from Phantasy Star and Dragon Quest/ Warrior through Final Fantasy XIII. They are among my favorite games. Dragon Quest VIII and Final Fantasy XII may be the last of the truly great JRPGs. That idea was prophetically voiced in a review of FF XII I read last generation, but I didn't want to believe it. I am still hoping an HD Dragon Quest game can someday prove those types of games still have a future, but I'm losing hope I'm afraid.

[Ngai]

Just finished the game.. and all i can say is WOW! It was amazing. Yes, the begin is a bit linear, but trust me.. play thru it. It could've not been better. This game is 10/10 on my list, in every aspect. It was amazing! 50hrs in, and still so much stuff to do. Tell me.. what other games offer so much quality and playtime? None. Only Final Fantasy. And SE did it again. Another master piece to the collection. FF13, it was awesome.

[SiteNblog Defender]

Great article. Will continue reading Destructoid.

[Gish]

I really think the visuals are great but I am 12 hours in and am having a really hard time dealing with the campiness... I know thats how things always are with JRPG, but it's tough when I am embarrassed playing it when my fiancee hears it and asks "what in the world are you playing? I would rather hear gun fire than that" (because of what i normally play). I love RPG's, but this is taking me a bit longer to get into. Hopefully something changes in the next few hours, because I dont think i want 40 more hours of it.

[clarkdef]

My fav was 9 I really enjoyed it, I would prefer they drop their gpx and make em more like the old ps1 games, I would not mind. I really enjoyed when the world opened up and you could go everywhere. But one thing I didn't like about the old games, was the heavy dialog.

[kenjix]

The argument that I'm reading from some of the comments just shock me. Some are saying you don't need a lot of space to make open world environments. The more detail and the more open ended you want to make a game the more space you'll need. So if you're making a cutscene heavy game and that takes up a lot of space then you have less space for the game world.

The point I hope you donkeys are getting is that when using DVD there are going to be things that have to be sacraficed along the way. If they want a lot of audio that takes up space. If they don't want to repeat the same enemies of environments and add a high lvl of HD detail, that takes up space.

IF A BLU-RAY MOVIE CAN TAKE UP 25GB AND IT'S ONLY A 2-4 HOUR EXPERIENCE WITH EXTRAS HOW CAN GAMES AVERAGING 6 - 10 HOURS EASILY ALWAYS FIT ON 8GB?

Anyone who argues DVD enough are a bunch of clowns and should all be driving around in a clown car, cramming all of you morons in for a good laugh. DVD doesn't equate to Golden Grahams!

[TheNetAvenger]

"IF A BLU-RAY MOVIE CAN TAKE UP 25GB AND IT'S ONLY A 2-4 HOUR EXPERIENCE WITH EXTRAS HOW CAN GAMES AVERAGING 6 - 10 HOURS EASILY ALWAYS FIT ON 8GB?"

You do realize that prior to BluRay and HD-DVD there were HD movies released on DVDs using WMV/VC1 compression. There was plenty of room for the movie. (T2 Extreme edition as I look at my shelf is just one example from over 10 years ago.)

Go to any torrent site and find HD quality video with moderate compression using 1.5gb for 2-3hrs.

Games also don't have 6-10 hrs of RENDERED Video usually, and if they do, they become an interactive movie more than a game you play instead of watching hours of cut scenes. (The large amount of rendered content for FF is what makes it pretty on the PS3, but for the actual gameplay has little to do with anything.)

However let me be clear, the DVD is NOT superior in space to BluRay, but BluRay is also not the future; online and flash is the future and both have far better speed and capacity than BluRay.

[kenjix]

were there any DVDs that released with 1080p content and Losses Audio?

[TheNetAvenger]

Are gamers really this clueless about development and the platforms themselves? Does it really matter which console is better, are people so silly to need or have to believe that their 'console' is better in every way than all others? If this was true, people would be using only a PC with a controller and skipping consoles which cannot come close to the processing or graphical abilities.

Hardware wise, it works like this:
PS3 superior CPU, XBox superior GPU

This means no matter what the XBox will always be able to produce higher quality textures on surfaces than the PS3, due to the limitations of the Geforce 7900 GPU in the PS3, the XBox GPU is a generation ahead and doesn't have the hardware texture limitations.

In terms of development tools and getting the most out of the hardware, this is where Microsoft's strong development tools have previously been ahead of Sony. (Microsoft is good at development and compilers and a easier platform for game production, as this is the heart of the entire company.)

Sony and PS3 development tools are catching up, getting the most performance out of the parallel aspects of the cell processor to add in performance and also augment lapses in the GPU quality by adding in post processing effects to do what the 360 GPU does inherently.

The DVD vs BluRay is only recently becoming an issue, and even in this game comes down to space for cut scene video quality.

And this is where I go, really?

As for actually gameplay, and real-time rendering in the game, the XBox 360 is at least equal to the PS3. It is only the 'pre-rendered video' that the PS3 looks significantly better, as the XBox video is compressed and rather poorly.

The DVD is not nearly the limitation people seem to think, especially when this game originally was designed for the PS2 and graphically augmented when production moved to the PS3 and XBox.

MS choose the DVD because of the speed and with plans that at the end of life cycle of the DVD, Flash and online content would replace it. They didn't even want or see HD-DVD as the replacement, which could handle the space that BluRay has. A 32gb Flash stick is virtually as cheap as BluRay media and will get even cheaper in the coming year. Why lock yourself to a slower optical media that is going to be replaced in a year?

There are amazing linear and non-linear games on BOTH platforms. You can't run around some of the games on both platforms and say that hardware has anything to do with any open world limitations.

Can't people just enjoy their games and if the studio/developers blew it, blames them.

[JOHN_DOH]

have fun waiting
http://www.newegg.com/Produ...

[s45gr32]

sorry but DVD format not holding back gaming is true. Come on there is a lot of multiplat games that could of benefited from Blu-ray format. Less space less videogame content like true open interactive worlds do you think L.A. Noire can be done on DVD without cutting game content they had to cut game content just like Final Fantasy 13 they cut an entire videogame worth of content:

http://www.andriasang.com/e...

Why because of the DVD format that's why. The future doesn't rely on flash sticks you really think that flash memory cards can replace Blu-ray you are wrong is too much data for flash memory cards to handle. The future of gaming lies in cloud computing. Look at Spiderman 3 yeah is open ended but can you interact with the environment of the game no, like prototype it looks like a PS2 game and had to take away any minigames they had due to DVD. Look at infamous if you are good the citizens of empire city treat you like their hero and the city looks like Beverly Hills. Be evil and the citizens throw rocks at you and put wanted posters of you all over the city. DVD is holding back gaming.

[Len92]

this guy needs to be assassinated with a .50 caliber sniper rifle, hes such a fanboy but what he says is true, ff13 is not all that.

[Blackcanary]

people to blame is Square Enix when are these kids gonna learn if they wanted it to be the way the fan's love and what made them full in love with FF then it would of happened and the 360 would of used more disk simple as.

[Saturnize]

It seems like this website is turning into N4T (News 4 Trollz) Hope they actually post some worthwhile news next time around.

[marchtrain]

FFXIII used Over 30GB at Fullmotion movie for PS3 version.
why asked for FFgames?

[LiquifiedArt]

Hasn't been a fan since the NES. There is absolutely no excuse to destroy a franchise. WHich is what they have been doing. Stop being brainwashed kiddies. Play the OLDER games and tell me the new one is even a RESEMBLANCE of its former self.

Cause its NOT.

OH YEA...ANd the ONLY exploration in FFXII is 1 area, 1 single large open PLAIn, which you run across and kill monsters, then its BACK to linearity. YAY! Don't be fooled, know what your defending!

[Primetimebt]

Honestly is it playstation 3 roll out season all over again? Everyday there is an article about a PS3 fanboys. Next time go time go to best buy and ask if they have any PS3 in stock, or wal mart, target, kmart, gamestop, gamecrazy, etc. Kind of sounds like a certain group of fanboys is beginning to witness the PS2 generation all over again.

[unworthyBOZO]

I wonder what group of fanboys your talking about LOL,but yeah I see what you mean after all the people that were saying all those things about the PS3 early in its lifecycle were wrong, and as the saying goes people hate being wrong on the internet.

[tehReaper]

This has nothing to do with the PS3. It is the way the fanboys act on a daily basis. 360 fanboys are bad but PS3 fanboys cross the line by attacking reviewers and blame EVERYTHING on the 360. Reviews are opinion, afterall. I won't even bother counting the petitions they made over the years.

[KeenanTheSavage]

hahahaha, jesus i love watching people react to Jim's articles. For or against, it's way too hilarious.

anyhow, for anybody saying that destructoid has become a fanboy website or troll website, you need to look at the website YOU'RE commenting on and complaining on.

[nephalti]

really! why defend so much a single console

[PandaJenkins]

Despite the article being bait for fanboys, it is somewhat true in ways. All the BS about the 360 causing the game to be linear and what not is stupid. Personally from what I have seen, a lot of the blame should be on western game reviwers.

Why? Because they have been biasedly judging JRPG's this entire generation for not being Western RPG's. Pretty much they are bad because of elements that make them JRPG's, which is stupid because it is like saying something is bad for being the genre it is. If you compare reasons like 'gameplay being too similar to other games in the genre' it is obvious enough how stupid the reviews are since FPS are far worse in that sense.

This brings me to the point that Square said themselves they wanted to appeal to the western audience more, and it makes sense for them to check out western reviews on JRPG's to see what problems they have. Despite not playing FF13 yet I can still see that several elements are there but it seems like they did take out certain elements to appeal to western audiences more, though of course hardcore fans of the series are annoyed about it.

I would also say the writer of this article was actually right about the visual part. So much work of the game would have gone into making the game look pretty (FF games are always overloaded with awesome CG scenes) instead of the game content. Not to mention they are following the trend of linear paths to tell a story, UC2 being a great example of this. It does sound like FF13 follows the same ideas as Lost Odyssey though due to the way it apparently tells the story in a linear path for most of the game and then opens up to side content right before the end... or something along those lines.

There is probably a lot more you could add but guess fanboys will never be convinced no matter what. Enjoy the game for what it is, if not then don't bother to play it and quit your whining. Tons of people complained about 12, and guess what? It was only on the PS2. Nothing was holding that back and SE annoyed the fans. In the end what they do is ultimately 'their' decision. Stop blaming other companies / inanimate objects for what they do.

[FF7numbaone]

*cough* enix, wada!

[MadMan00]

If you have actually played the game adding cities to go to wouldn't make much since at ALL for how the story is you're basically on the run the hole time, and there's not even really a town in the game it's just a thing in the sky, your a fugitive the whole damn game.

And yeah if think really think it was thr 360s fault you're a complete idiot look at some of the JRPG/RPG games that are on 360 that are HUGE like Lost Odyssey and Star Ocean 95% of the people blaming 360 are PS3 fan boys.

[snp]

But anyone who says the overall design of the game was sacrificed for the 360 is an idiot, just like the author says.
---

Or they have an opinion differing from your own? No-one can know absolutely.

----
The PS3 was the lead platform and based on the countless articles posted to this website about it the story and overall design were complete before the decision was made to go to the 360.
----

It was the lead platform, yes, but it was designed explicitly to take advantage of Bluray right up until the point when it had to work satisfactorily on both Bluray AND Dvd without any over the top disc swapping for the latter.

The 'countless articles' have as much or as little weight as you're willing to give them.

-----
So even if there were no 360 version the game still would have been linear. Square Enix themselves said that creating cities was too expensive.
-----

Well, Square's going to say whatever Square has to say to dispel negative fallback from perceived detrimental effects of their decision (whether it's sincere/true or not i couldn't tell you).

Personally, while i don't think the differences pre/post DVD inclusion would be that huge (too late into development), i do think it's a little goofy to suggest there are/were 'absolutely none' - though i wouldn't go so far as to call anyone an 'idiot' for believing that.

A game designed top down to utilise one 25 gig disc is logically going to be a little less 'segments of data' orientated than one designed to fit on three discs not-to-be-revisited (both in coding and at least the finer elements of structure). If it isn't the case - and retooling of the details post DVD format inclusion wasn't necessary - it's pretty poor use of the 25 gigs, frankly.

[snp]

Any comment to go with the disagree, or have i procured myself a stalker troll?

Which part do you disagree with, whoever that was? I'm sincerely curious...

If you have a voice, feel free to use it..

[snp]

lol. So stalker/s it is. Cool.

[TRGMatt]

SO those few of us who actually PLAYED the game will be an exclusive crowd who were graced by one of the finest, most unique and endearing roleplaying experiences this century.

I've chosen to stop caring if people are writing bad reviews for the sake of website hits. The game plays great and its only shortcomings are that which has been deemed "different" by robots who refuse to formulate their own opinions and would rather "roll with the cool crowd" and badmouth the game.

GREAT plot, likeable characters with unique personalities (mostly), a frantic battle system that takes time to master, challenging, gorgeous scenery, as I continue to play this game, I only fall more in love with it.

And most of you won't get to experience it. Sucks for you.

[Midgard228]

only idiots who didnt play the game are the ones that dont know why its linear, if u know the story then u wud know they are *Spoiler* fugitives and cant go into cities, they are constantly chased morons.

and um 3 disc no towns, compressed, sub-hd....imagine with towns ;p

[onanie]

Only idiots think that FF13 is linear for any other reason.

3 discs FTW, I guess.

[The Time Reaper]

I feel it's bad taste to call any of your readers idiots.

[Solotov]

almost all the FFXIII blu-ray space is filled with crappy CG cut scenes, it was not need for the actual game.
One of the main characters is more annoying than Jar Jar Binks

[Biggest]

Crappy scenes? The version I'm playing is absolutely beautiful. Can someone point me in the direction of better cutscenes? I have money and want to buy.

[FF7numbaone]

they look great on ps3 and tell the story well. I dont what version your playing but I can ff13 is focused on story so the CGI is great.

[stonecold1]

the 360 and m$ and square enix for it they had to delayed the ps3 version because work on the 360 version wasnt started when the ps3 version was ready to go until m$ came along and ruined it at the e3 and the 360 hardware lack of space held this game back that why theres no town and npc and huge world explore sony has final fantasy vs 13 exclusive im pretty sure sony has vs covered

[Aerodynamic41]

The 360 isn't to blame for the lack of towns, npc and open world. If that was the case, then please explain how games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 on the 360 had towns, npc and open world and both still came on one DVD. The only reason why FFXIII took a lot of space is because it had a lot of cgi cutscenes.

[Biggest]

I know one way that those games could fit on 1 DVD. Repeat the same dungeons and landscapes, but with different colors, as much as possible. I'm not blaming anything on the 360 here. I love FFXIII as is. But the areas look completely different. They all have clean lines, vibrant colors, and details down to the scratches on the mobs. That is WAY too much to fit on 1 DVD. If they made FFXIII a FPS-type RPG and made mashed potato areas (read: bland), then it might fit on 1 DVD.

[spirit777]

Ive played final fantasy 8,9,10 and now thirteen. I dont know why you'd complain about final fantasy being linear its always been story driven. In my opinion the story of final fantasy series has been a strong point of the series. And after playing final fantasy 13 for some 30 hours I'm not disappointed. I think whether you buy the xbox 360 or playstation 3 version its an excellent addition to the series and you wont be disappointed :-)

[quantumriian]

Stop the hate

[N1X CAFE]

The PS3 always was the superior console, its just unfortunate that there aren't enough games to prove it. FF13 was never meant to be on the xbx360 and that's why it sucks. Kudo's to microsoft to getting a FF13 on their console but you can't expect a game to look good on a console it was never intended for. Go figure that why FFXIV is due to a PS3 exclusive, IE "the way it was originally intended"

[Biggest]

"The PS3 always was the superior console, its just unfortunate that there aren't enough games to prove it."

Is it still 2007 or something?

[seifer085]

calling people idiots, the irony hahaha.

I say only idiots defend the 360 version but u dont see me writing a mediocre article about it.

[foxxy]

13 is the best version of the game it looks amazing and im enjoying the battle system. 14 is exclusive versus13 omg this game is going to rock. Sqaure knows who is his girlfreind and who is a hoe X-box-360 just use and make money lmao Square is a pimp.

[dontfeedjay]

Why is it necessarily a bad thing. I have ff13 on ps3 and am currently enjoying it
I don't sit around and wonder what could have been, I just enjoy what I have.

That said, linear gameplay serves a purpose. It gets the player into the story.
Think of oblivion or fallout. To me the story in either of those games is
completely forgettable. I don't care (or remember) what I am supposed to be doing
in fallout, I just run around shooting supermutants until I get bored, then I go
play something else.

Before anyone starts in with the "LOL UZ IZ ST00PID" remarks, let me clarify.
I do understand the stories behind games that are open world, like fallout
and oblivion. However, since they are open, I find myself increasingly less
tied to the main story. Why should I care that location/person x is being
threatened by thing y? They basically just say "you are a hero, save this
person/place/thing from their moosey fate".

I do agree that 13 could be less linear, but I am not going to burn some
360 effigies over it. I will just wait and see what square does, and if
the games don't live up to my memories I will simply stop buying.

[Mikeyy]

I don't think we'll ever see FF7 De-throned.

Liner is not the way to go, thats for sure. I like 13 but it could have been soooo much more.

[Run_bare]

I dont blame xbox 360 of it's linearity, but i do somewhat skeptical on what FFXIII will be without Xbox limitations using DVD format. Square even admit that their are a lot of contents they don't put in, their excuse was a diplomatic one.

They should make the game on how it should be without limitations of a particular format.

[Meryl]

here is my take on FF 13: SPOILER WARNING!!
The storyline, although is fresh is very average, and at several times it even irritates you, whilst giving you no explanation(and trust me the explanation given is not that great and is too predictable) until later on why certain thing like sazh and vanille breaking away from the party and running away in the opposite direction.
The gameplay is very fast and is unique, however I do fell that they unnecessarily overcomplicated it with the paradigm system, some users may get frustrated from the system. Also you can only control the character it assigns you until later on(when the game opens up a bit more towards the end).
The linearity is even worse than FFX, you feel like you really are playing on a corridor RPG, with hardly any interactions, or navigations, there are towns, but even the NPC's do not really contribute towards the story, unless it is a cutscene.
The music and graphic is where FF XIII shines, there is no game which looks this good and the music is so moving at times.
To be honest to me this is the second worse FF, FFXII is the worst FF still, and I even prefer WKC over it, despite it getting worse reviews.

[TheOrion]

It's the influence its had forced onto it by the western gaming market, FF XIII has at least preserved some of its traditions, but it just doesnt feel like a J-RPG anymore.

Though there are some redeeming featurtes to the latest game, but like FF XII, I can't help but feel less involved again in the game and this is the main problem. I could immerse myself into ff1-9 and a little to 10, but 12 and 13? Not so much, and for me thats a game killer.

As for graphics, meh not caring so much. Sacrifice that and give me back my world map and towns.

[Silber]

It´s easy. Final Fantasy really got dumb, as Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator and Storywriter of Final Fantasy) have left squaresoft.

Now this is not Final Fantasy anymore, its a bad try to make something new.

[CherryLu-Chan]

And the fact that i'm adoring the PS3 version and my bandmate is smitten with the 360 version.
Great game on both consoles.. that's top!

[Skizelli]

There hasn't been a good FF since VII in my humble opinion. It went down hill after that. I could really care less about XIII.

[yogaflame]

okay let me start:

1. from the promise 1080p it was downgraded
2. from the promise use of dual shock controller tilt functions for vehicles, it was junk
3. from the promise of more towns and bigger levels, it was junk bcause of lack of bluray
4. for the promise of maximizing the capabilities of ps3 and cell just like UC2, and Gow 3, it was junk because they want to follow xbox 360 specs the devs themselves said that.

and you all know the answer.

[Darkfiber]

That's what I've always said. If anything, FF13 has higher production values BECAUSE it's multiplatform, since they knew they would make more money over all, they could invest more money in it. Making it PS3 exclusive wouldn't change the core game.

[asyouburn]

cuz its not like any other developers had to ditch open world to make their game run on xb360. . . /looks at alan wake/. . . oh. . . right. . . i kid, i kid. whats with everybody whining about what ff13 "could have been"? to me, the game is fantastic. 360 or ps3 if you're a rpg fan, you owe it to yourself to at least check it out! the battle system is amazing

[ManiacMansion]

i am in chapter 8 now (PS3 version). And the game sucks like hell.

I already gave an offer in an forum to trade for bad company 2 or yakuza 2.

Its an epic fail if you need 30 hours until the games makes some fun, lol!

Square Enix = Biggest FLOP this gen

Do not wait for VS13.. believe me it will be the same Sh!t.

[tyrex]

im tired of hearing about this game either buy it or dont. if you have a 360 buy it if you have a ps3 buy it. keep hearing about this game makes me want to put a shotgun to my face. please give it a rest

[asyouburn]

if hearing about ff13 makes you want to put a shotgun in your face, why did you click on a ff13 article? seems to me the best way to distance yourself from the game would be to not click through on ff13 related stories

[Macho Man]

YEAH, the blame lies within the beholder, it's the casuality of the 360 gamer, yeah, the very gamer than can't think "gee this thing be made of water so I better throw some thundara at it" no no no they can only feel the fact, yeah, the fact that they sit on their candy-ass and eat nachos telling their mothers to make em more meat loaf! I shoot everything that moves but I love Finally Fantasying, YEAH, Macho Man, doesn't believe you!

Oh things will never be the same, yeah, I'mma dust off my Super NES and play with Macho Man's good friend Locke! YEAH! WHADDYA SAY!?

DIG IT!!

[A7XEric]

This article is so legit.

[Enigma_2099]

If you blame anyone for a games linearity, blame the people that made it.

I WILL blame the 360 for causing all of us to buy DLC, because we all know why they made it now.

[s45gr32]

Harsh but true and I agree on this article in that the blame falls squarely on Square Enix. It was Square Enix decision not Microsoft to bring Final Fantasy 13 to xbox 360 they had the choice not to accept the money being offered by Microsoft they (Square Enix) had the choice to make FF13 exclusively for PS3. Why did Square Enix brought it over to the xbox 360 to use the DVD format as an excuse to cut videogame content is only 9gb we can't fit our game; therefore, we will happily cut videogame content because we can't fit it with our storyline. That is just being lazy in the sense they didn't know what to do with videogame content that was the size of an entire game really!!! stop this bull crap mentality of 360 vs PS3 its Square that has become lazy and greedy. You guys can't see that then I can't help you.

[bviperz]

But they took away a lot of things that made FF X great for me. No collecting beasts for the arena? Aw man!

[e-p-ayeaH]

Since that ive seen alot of pointless crap from the franchise specially the FF7 AC movie that ruined what a FF suposed to be. but i also blame myself to actually enjoyed the movie but was still pointless crap.

[Fadetoblack69]

Yet another useless article written by an obvious fanboy with nothing more on his mind than to keep the flamewars going. The idiocy never ceases the amaze. *rolls eyes*

[Rocket Sauce]

The ironing is delicious.

[tyrex]

i said HEARING ff13 articles like this fanboy bull not reading them (cause i dont) And its hard not to HEAR\SEE when its the first thing on the page of a website you frequent. Im not saying i dont care about ff13 but STUPID articles about said game. if you dont get where im going then i dont know

[Lightel0s]

From my experience with L.O & FF13, i realized that Lost odyssey it´s a better game overall.

both games have great stuff... its hard to decide honestly

[Rocket Sauce]

Lost Odyssey was SUPER-underrated. It's my favorite game of this generation right next to Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. If Final Fantasy 13 really is a travesty or whatever, I hope that just drives more people to check this game out.

If you dug the PS1 Final Fantasy games, drop 20 bucks and give it a try.

[belowradar]

Arguing on the internet is like winning in the Special Olympics.
Even if you win you're still a f'n retard.

Some people around here take things way too seriously.