| Platform | GameSpot | Metacritic / User Score |
|---|---|---|
Lightning strikes Kevin VanOrd as he adventures in the world of Cocoon during this video review for Final Fantasy XIII.
I am really on both sides here. I enjoyed the game very much 10-20 hours in the game, NOT because of the game play, but because of the story, it?s fu*cked up confusing but I still liked the game. An outstanding amazing game for me would be a combination of XIII?s story told in a little bit easier way, with the gameplay of Kingdom Hearts.
Someone here say?s they have played games that can?t be compered with this. What games are you thinking of? I would really like to know.
If not for my undying devotion to the Final Fantasy franchise, and hot streak of finishing every single major final fantasy title (including but not limited to Final Fantasy Tactics, and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest) I would have stopped playing this game about 10-15 hours in.
That's right... the only reason I kept playing this game (aside from my really good friend telling me that it gets good about 40 hours in :??? ??? ) was because of the final fantasy name and it's legacy. Utterly horrid characters and character progression (in a story and combat sense), utterly boring exploration or lack there of, utterly convoluted and inapplicable plot (not to mention cheap plot devices).
Fans of JPRGs, stay away... stay far far away.
Usually a Final Fantasy is a "top" game for each console, this one it isn't.
Technically is superb, great graphics and the best music you can find in a video game, probably the best music in any Final Fantasy so far.
What is wrong:
The history, is really confusing and you don't care much about the well been of your character or the world.
The enemy, it doesn't have define enemy or at least one you can hate or fear in your journey, you are suppose to be hated by everybody and you walk from town to town feeling just fine.
@neoperol The story and characters are an overly complicated mess. When you get down to the bare bones of the plot, it really could have been made much more simple and been much more effective. Instead they decided to keep the bad guys and good guys completely ambiguous throughout most of the game...
After learning of some of the motivations of the bad guys you eventually fight I would literally find myself saying "Huh? that makes no sense" becoming more and more disconnected as the story progresses.
FF13 is an amazing game and so is FF13-2. I still don't understand all the hate this game has got it has the most enjoyable combat system. Why pick on Vanille's voice she is not an annoying character she is a great in depth character it's great to show how optimistic she can be after everything she's been through. I know they are game characters but like the review says they'll feel like old friends after 50 hours they definitely do. :)
1 Like @Gamergirl67 the only people saying this game is amazing, have probably never played a truly good JRPG. Yeah, I may be assuming too much, and stretching... but it might as well be true.
I mean, how bad could the game be if I actually spent the time to beat it... (all the while cursing and complaining about the linearity of the world, the forced dialogue, atrociously bad plot, and over simplified yet at the same time convoluted combat system). Yeah I guess in it's own right, Final Fantasy XIII was an OK JRPG, but amazing? that statement just makes me chuckle.
1 Like Awesome game. This and XIII-2 are excellent. Bring on the LIGHTNING RETURNS, Square-Enix. I'm gonna go pre-order that biatch after New Year's day, LOL.
it may be an 8 as an standalone rpg, but its the worst FF ive played, and ive played 6 different titles, guess i was expecting too much
That's it, I just ordered it, was looking at my Amazon list and the rest of the games left to play are meh, this one can't be that bad.
1 Like @bugside Good call. I don't get the complaints about this game. It's f*cking awesome. Best battle system in the entire series. Yes, it's definitely linear as hell, but the story, combat and graphics are insane. XIII-2 has way better exploration.
@5gilbert YES! It's SO GOOD. Glad to hear somebody digs this game too. I have XIII and XIII-2 and can't wait for LIGHTNING RETURNS. :)
1 Like With all honestly, the linearity was a breath of fresh air for me. To some level of exploration, I get sick of the pace.
1 Like I played the game, its good and i enjoyed playing this game, the only prob is its linearity because i always want to play FF on a much open area for example gran pulse, but that's the only place u can roam around..and also it lacks side quests but all in all.. its good.. :-) one more thing.. i always wanted to fight titan.. the big guy that you can see at gran pulse.. :-)
By the way marco, you have a really negative opinion on this game, its not FF2, its not FF7 either. I guess nobody can shoot fascists on a train anymore without being FF7...
2 Like I happen to think this reviewers less than optimistic. I don't know what his hate for Vanille has to do with the game itself and not just his brutish opinion? Its funny to me, the whole game was great I loved it more than a lot of new games I've played and I play a lot of them. I don't see a lot of games these days with characters this great, but this guy... His opinion on Vanille is so bogus. First of all, what does he want from a young girl? Does he want her to belch and talk gruff? If everyone was like lightning and Fang wouldn't it get boring? What is wrong with a fun optimistic woman? What is so annoying to this guy about a female voice? I don't really care what his technical opinion on this game is, but why bash peoples favorite characters? Vanille was cute, sexy and fun, the other chicks where just whupp your ass... So what is wrong with her? Why does this guy feel the need to bash a fictional character? Does he hate women that much that he has to bash Vanille over and over again, based on her voice alone? Well they got a real woman to do her voice... So what does this guy hate the sound of a womans voice? I just finished this game, and I liked it, and I was curious as to what the reviewers thought of the game technically. And all this guy does is bash a character? Because he doesn't like fun optimistic women? Well its no wonder tho, look how he looks, I bet someone like Vanille hurled when they saw him and now he's got a never ending grudge against people like her. This review is a joke, and very insulting to the fans.
1 Like @AngryGamer27 What fans? half the people that bought the game hate it.
The characters in this game are so 1 dimensional, it's pathetic they gave them so much dialogue. I simply do not understand any praise for this game. Yeah I beat it... but I hated about 75% of it, I found myself rushing to the end, which wasn't difficult seeing as how linear the game was, you're almost forced to rush.
There was essentially no puzzles, no side quests (save for the hunts... which was just boss fights). Character progression in a combat sense was so mind numbingly linear, sure it opens up a tad once you get to a certain point, but the outrageous costs for the other crystarium grids demoralized you into swaying from the per-assigned roles each character already has.
At first I thought the combat is cool, but once you get the hang of it about 20 hours in (when you see the potential of it) it becomes so utterly repetitive, and so utterly automated, you lack any desire to progress your character other than the necessity of progressing and finally finishing the game.
Vanille is not annoying because of her personality, or necessarily because of her voice. It's because of her pointless dialogue, pointless and utterly nonsensical dialogue, and there is a LOT of it. Give her something meaningful to say, introduce a little depth to her (which they were mildly successful with when she received her eidolon).
This game was just bad... I can't emphasize enough how much of a convoluted (yet at the same time overly simple) mess this game is as an RPG.
@AngryGamer27 LOL! Yup, Vanille was adorable. Loved her! Her optimism was contagious. Great character!
3 Like I really have to disagree on this one, The story started confusing and explained nothing so much so I couldn't bring myself to finish it and no the visuals DO NOT make up for the boring massive straight path you walk along nor did the combat.
Combat was either to boring or just irritating and I found more than just ONE character to be annoying. What was even more shameful was that they completely copied their introduction from Final Fantasy 7, An 'ex-member' of an organisation starts helping a rebellious group of which her main companion is some black guy who is mostly comic relief, Sound familiar?
I'm sorry but you gave this 8.5 for the franchise name.
oh and "no one area over stays it's welcome".... bullshit, plain and simple.
Personally I think this game is entirely deserving of 8.5. The story was fairly decent and the visuals were unbelievable. The variety of areas you went to and soundtrack really sucked you in, the battle's gameplay was fairly basic and mostly consisted of pressing X, but the overall experience to me was perfectly suitable with an 8.5.
the biggest flaw of FFXIII, is that it takes about 10 hours before you get sucked into this game....
1 Like I have to say, this game was a huge disappointment for me. As a stand-alone RPG, it was alright. Above average even. But it definitely is not on par with its FF predecessors. Makes me sad.
People are complaining about the combat system but its incredibly well programmed, time saving and intuitive. I'm 15 hours in and although I do agree its linearity and customization is limited; but, on the bright side perhaps this enabled resources for a longer story than perhaps otherwise? People have been cringing about certain characters- I agree but just about all past final fantasy had these elements just in a different visage.
This game is awesome, maybe the people have complains about the lineal, however i'm an adult gamer, i don't have ten hours available to play per day, so a "Linear RPG" is perfect to me because i hate waste my time walking around of open world. So this game is beautiful, has an epic history, a quick system fight. If you wants an open world with 200 hours walking just go to get Skyrim and shut up! FFXIII: 9.0
I got a Xbox360 for Christmas and I got this game for $10.00 new and it's far from a bad game.It looks awesome and it may be linear and not open world but I'm really liking it.
seriously i dont see what some of these people are talkin about... boring with a dumb and lame battle system story ha right it's no FFXII as far as battle system and story but it far from sucks IMO! linear and some bad voice acting well you got me there, but hey i am enjoying my FFXIII experience :D
What is the song in the begging of the review it sounds nice. However why did they play it way to often. Someone please tell me the rest of the music dosen't suck.
I only have a laptop to play games on but I'm getting a console(undecided on which one) for Christmas and I'm dying to play this.I don't care if it's not a open as other FF games.
Personally loved the game. I think it would have been way better if the villains got more screen time/justice, most of them got the shaft this time around which was disappointing. Overall still a great game. LOL, I think it's hilarious that Kevin dumps on Vanille so much, because he interviews her VA later and is all "you did great, blah blah *lying*"
amazing game my favorite ending in a final fantasy game. still not as good as final fantasy 10 in my opinion but really enjoyed it 8.5 maybe a 9 for me. the only thing i hated about this game is that it ended cant wait for part 2=)
I would like to know who are these people thumbing down all positive comments. The game has got a players score of 8.4 here in GS. 8.2 in Metacritic. Dear haters, just deal with it: you are a small minority. Go back and play CoD.
1 Like Man I bought this game yesterday and after playing it for many hours I can say that this is one of most boring games I have ever played. I mean the story and game linearity is a different thing I am simply hating the combat. the enemies are standing in front of us but still every 5 secs we have to go into battle mode. Just simply kills the whole flow. I loved Ff12, played it over many times but this game is such a let down. game looks beautiful but man thats it. yawn. I will finish it just for the heck of it. if you are a FF fan, please dont buy this game. Sadly next part also has the same combat system. yawn.
1 Like @Zero_Kull I disagree. Final Fantasy X had some saving graces to it, incredible music, a great story, and a truly awesome combat system.
1 Like I'm a big FF fan. I have been playing this game for 30 hours now and let me tell you, in some point, i just stopped playing.. the game is so linear and boring, the story didn't kept me interested, i still plan to finish the game just because i don't want this to be a total waste of money.
indeed Without remorse trust me i try this game even i get all the trophies go and buy it
