Opinions on Final Fantasy XIII?

Question

i was randomly watching the old E3 2006 trailers of FFXIII and i began thinking that the game looked pretty good the way it was. i say that because:
-the battle screen is less chaotic than the current battle system (maybe cause of the number of party members?) the overall display just looks better to me. Also, the damage display seems to overlap in the new system, i couldn't tell what was being hit.
-The camera seemed to pan at better angles, that system looked more like battles from Advent Children
- (i'll probably be hated for saying this) I honestly would've preferred it if Lightning was the only playable character for maybe 70-80% of the game (maybe a guest character here and there), based on the gameplay battle in the trailer. Looking at the current Crystallium system, i honestly don't want to go through all the processess of leveling up all six characters for all the different paradigm shifts (it's like FFX, i never used wakka or rikku but i needed to level them up because of underwater battles). If Lightning was the only character you could control, then with that paradigm system you'd basically be playing a different character with the same physical body.
-The graphics were already amazing, and yet they had to make them even more extravagant (not that i have any issue with that) but i would've been just as satisfied with the E3 2006 graphics as they were.
Don't get me wrong, i'll 100% guarantee i'm gonna love the game anyway (there isn't a FF i've played and hated) but i just think there are certain elements they should've kept from the earlier stages of development.
What do you guys think? Am i being too critical or is there a little truth in what i've said? Feel free to be as harsh/judgemental/biased as you like. (i just wanna know what other people think, cause my friends could care less about video games.)

Answer 1

Your Answer:

I am a massive FF fan. I was hooked when FFVII first came out on the PS1 and I’ve had everyone since (except when they release that all girl one ..what a pile of **** lol), Epic story! even combed the back catalogue using emulators. The graphics were ok back then, but at the time your imagination could fill the gaps.



Personally I don’t think you are being too critical but perhaps missing the point of these turn-based strategy games.

I think when you play this from the beginning you will learn to read the battle screen as the game progresses before it gets to chaotic and will be able to cherry pick the fight information you want without being too distracted by all the crazy effects they are throwing at you, and no doubt you will be able to customize your battle screen like you have been able to in previous version as well.



The reason I think you missing the point is if you were to play one character though say 80% of the game. it would seem very very linear and more like a turn based hack and slash. they give you character combinations so you can change strategy in these "turn-based strategy games" the creators would have to keep similar strengths and weakness on all enemies to keep in line with you main guy. And like with FFX they force you to work with the other characters so your forced out of your comfort zone and experience the full game, I don’t believe this to be a negative point but in fact good planning. these things should be challenging, cake walk games are boring.



(I remember getting stuck on the "Wall Boss" on FFVII @ the Temple because the additional characters were fixed and I had not used them AT ALL lol,( Aries & Yuffie I think) I did eventually do it one broken pad and dented wall later. But the feeling was amazing. This is rush that I feel so many games lack these days)



So I digress, without these twists and shifts in tactics I feel this would be incomplete and have no replay value at all.



If I could change anything I’d like to have an additional feature on top of the skill tress and EXP spending systems they currently use in the game. Bring back Materia Slotted Items! :) that was an awesome idea in FFVII, you could have some devastating combos. I had Cloud hitting 39996 per turn by the true end game, and I they could expand on that so much. and I don’t think this would clash with any other skill tree, EXP type systems in the game.



But from one fan to another, each to their own. I’ve already preordered. :)

Well that’s my FF rant over till release date. Thanks lol

Happy playing

Answer 2

Mostly I agree. The one thing I do disagree with is the single character (Lightning) bit; while some FFs have far too many playable characters in them - mainly the earlier ones - I like the level it got to with X (I also really liked Rikku and Wakka). I enjoy having six characters to switch between, in fact it's one of things I can comment positively on about FFXII. Being a completionist (not a 'perfect-must-get-99-of-everything' player, just a 'must get all summons/weapons etc' one) I find having several characters helps detract from the monotony of the inevitable grinding needed to be able to take on the super bosses.



I, as always, am counting down the days to release, and know that I'll love the game. I mean it can hardly be worse than XII. Don't get me wrong, I liked XII enough to play through twice, totalling around 360 hrs on it, but it had some major flaws (license grid was awful, character development and involvement in the central 'star wars' story was almost non existent). From what I can gather XIII has things people are moaning about, but that'll always be the case. The biggest moan I've heard is the linear nature of a large section of the game. Personally I welcome that; I'm not a fan of the whole free-roam game model, I prefer some parameters to my exploration. And FFX was linear too, yet I think it was one of the best FFs. XIII is going to be awesome, and I know I'll certainly get my money's worth out of it. 20 days to go...

Answer 3

I totally agree with you, my friend. As always, the best RPG anyone will ever play...SquareEnix surely delivered again...