FinalFantasy-XIII.net: As most of you know, a few months ago I was flown out to L.A. by Square Enix and got to give FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 a preliminary spin. I’ll be honest, prior to attending this event, I was skeptical about XIII-2. Granted, I was excited for the game, the announcement trailer looked quite promising, as did the subsequent trailer featuring gameplay. Even so, after FINAL FANTASY XIII, I was unsure about a sequel. Don’t get me wrong, I liked XIII, a lot actually, I find I’m one of the bigger fans of the game. Criticism notwithstanding, I still felt wary about a XIII-2. So, it was a pleasant surprise when I finally got my hands on it, and almost instantly felt a lot better. It was clear right from the get go that Square Enix took XIII’s criticism to heart and worked hard to improve on things in XIII-2.
Now Square has thankfully given us a full review copy of the PS3 version, here is my final impressions of their attempts to win back some of the pessimists.
Final Fantasy 13 was first introduced to us back in 2009, almost four years after Final Fantasy 12 was released, and fans had been eagerly anticipating the next installment. But when it finally arrived, there were mixed reactions, including complaints about its linearity, the lack of towns and NPCs, and the limited control over the characters. At the time, Square Enix kept its game production behind closed doors and didn't take in a lot of feedback — especially from Western fans.
The game has been revisited by many different Final Fantasy fans since then, and some, like myself, have come to love it again. Almost all staple entries in the series have found their way to modern consoles, so it's about time that the FF13 trilogy gets a remaster
I've been thinking about this. I agree. While I really disliked it at first I never played it again. After hating ff15 so damn much I just think it can't be worse then 15 and if I'm not mistaken atleast it's turn based. I need more of that in my life.
Recently replayed them and I agree a remaster would be great. The complaints about linearity are fair, but they only really apply to the first half of the first game and while I agree that it would've been nice to have proper towns, minigames and subquests, it didn't detract from the intriguing story, interesting characters, tactical gameplay and amazing soundtrack in my opinion.
XIII-2 fixes a lot of the issues of XIII and expands on the story in interesting ways. The combat and progression builds on top of the systems of XIII and the nonlinearity and discoverability of secrets is a big inprovement over the original game. It's easily the best game of the trilogy.
Lightning Returns was probably a bit too experimental for it's own good. It tried to reinvent the wheel for no reason. The solo party for most of the game and the outfit based combat felt like a downgrade over XIII-2 combat system. It does have a unique vibe, but the plot kinda goes off the rails and many of the story beats didn't land as much for me as they did in the first two games. The race against time aspect was an interesting idea, but it never felt like it mattered, because it wasn't much of a challenge to manage the remaining time even while doing all the subquests.
As we celebrate Final Fantasy’s 35th anniversary, let’s look back at the underrated soundtracks of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy.
It's alright but I mean with so many other FF games it's not even in the top 10 for me
You just can't beat IX, VII, X and my personal favourite VIII when it comes to music
Even the theme song sucks, instead of just having an English version of the Japanese theme they got X Factors Leona Lewis to do the song which didn't sound like FF theme song.
I agree, regardless of the general consensus of the game itself, FF rarely lets down when it comes to the music at least.
Modder 'MJB' has released an AI-enhanced HD Texture Pack for Final Fantasy XIII-2.
Can't wait to get my copy tomorrow.
finally a review that seems credible for once, never saw what the internet thought was so bad about ff13, but 13-2 seems like a big overhaul to an already great game
Wow a site called finalfantasy-XIII.net enjoyed Final fantasy XIII-2...Shocker
Hey i heard amy got 10/10 on
amy.com! so getting it now!
Even though it's a clearly biased website am glad they enjoyed it.
It's a game that's not everyones cup of tea even for ff fans. If you hate the game stop going on the links to trash it. (same for every game).