The Final Fantasy Thread

[JPW]

Hi anyone else into this series here.

I've recently been getting into this franchise a lot more in the last couple of months and I am loving it.
I loved FFX and I don't mind FF3 on DS.

Lately though
I started off with Final Fantasy 7 at the start of this year. Downloaded it off the PSN. First time i've played it and it was such a time warp and it's had its fair share of twists and turns.
It's a good game and i've gotten up to disc 3.

But then after all of that another FF game was released recently and I've been so caught into it.

Final Fantasy 13. And to be honest I love this game. Everyone seems to be complaining about the linear style and how it's so different and they can't get around it. But I actually like it. I'm 40 hours in it now and i'm half way through the side quests. It's been one hell of an adventure. One hell of a trek. And a good game to play.
I love the battle system, paradigms take a while to get used to but the tutorials actually help you our and the Crysatarium kind of remind me of the sphere grid. And the upgrading it's a bit different and it's quite a challenge because this time gill isn't earnt in battles it's found in the round balls. So leveling up and such is a little bit more of a challenge.
I digging the story... i'm digging the boss battles even i've only found about 3 though boss battles. The hardest being the Chapter 9 boss so far.

I would love to talk about my experience moreso in the coming weeks.

But I just want to get everyone else's thoughts on the Final Fantasy Franchise before I push this thread along. As we all know there's no point building up a thread/topic and boasting about it if no one cares and you're talking to dead air.

You like to have some sort of conversation going on all the time. Also I took the liberty of naming this The Final Fantasy Thread so any games can be talked about. It doesn't just have to be FF13.

So what are your thought on the franchise? Have any of you been playing FF13 as of late? How do you feel about it?

[Batman]

I didn't like the game.

I wasn't going to buy FFXIII, since everything I had read about it after its Japanese release lead me to believe it wasn't going to be any good. Japanese fans were outspokenly critical of the game, and many Japanese reviews I read of the game scored it very low. However, I was walking around a Blockbuster and temptation got the better of me. I rented the game for three nights and I spent two days playing in non-stop to try and finish it. I didn't finish it.

The story is a mess for about the first 10 hours in. The Destructoid review worded it best when it said

Final Fantasy XIII has perhaps one of the worst introductions a Japanese RPG has ever had. Square Enix thought it would be a good idea to not tell the player what is happening, and as a result, the first ten hours of the game feels like a conversation that the player has stumbled in on halfway through. All the characters know what's going on, and talk as if the player should know, leading to a very alienating narrative that ensures the player never truly connects with it. When you finally do work out who is who and what's going on, however, you'll wish the game had stayed so vague.

and I agree with what was said, word for word, in the entire review. I was several hours into the game and had absolutely no idea what was happening or why I should care for anything (should I be siding with Pulse or Cocoon? What are Pulse and Cocoon? Why is their relationship the way it is?). Eventually I spent about half an hour+ reading through the entire datalog, and I was able to wrap my head around the world S-E was trying to create. I wondered why, though, they couldn't offer me the same vital information in the game.

The characters were average with the exception of Sazh (who I like a lot). In fact, I think I much prefer all of the male characters over the intolerable female ones. Vanille has probably the worst voice actor of all time, and a lot of her dialogue makes her sound like a borderline sociopath (except... she's not [they were just trying to make her sound cute]). It's sometimes really hard to know if she's being serious or comical (so we... run?) or how she feels about the situation. However, I mostly blame this problem on the fact that voice actor is woeful and couldn't stick to any form in her accent.

Lightning is an annoying character for the first 4 or so chapters, because she's extremely bullheaded and ends up punching away her problems more than Snow (and he uses fist weapons!). I wanted desperately for Fang to put her in her place when she got slapped by Lightning. This is not a technical fault in the writing though, so I'm willing to accept that the kind-of-lead character is totally unlikable for parts of the game. Eventually though, she wanders off with Hope and acts as a really sh*tty mentor. She says a bunch of stuff that doesn't mean anything, but I suppose the writers thought this would make her look deep or hardened by the life of being a city guard. And when she's not spouting nonsense, she cheesing it up with the most cringe-worthy dialogue I've ever encountered. Really! And it felt it was one (nonsense) or the other (cheese) with her - sometimes both! Speaking of cheese and nonsense, I feel mostly the same way about Vanille's narration.

Fang isn't bad, but her voice actor annoyed me too so she loses marks.

The battle system is fine, but the gameplay for the first ~20 hours is not. The first three hours are spent fighting useless battles with no rewards that mostly serve as a way of splitting up all the cutscenes shown. Then, for the next ~10 hours, the game slowly opens up all the intricacies of the battle system to you. As for the actual battles... the stagger system ruined it for me, eventually. It never offers any challenge, it just lengthens the battles. Most of the time, you will either kill an enemy in seconds or spend upwards of a minute hacking away at its stagger bar - but it's never difficult. The stagger system truly shows its faults when you're stuck with a party of two (getting through Orions with Sazh and Vanille hurt my brain).

It just grows extremely tedious, especially when it's all you've got to do besides walking and watching cutscenes. I'm not even sure why people complain about some of the bosses in this game, because I never had trouble with any of them. Oh, and Summons are worthless.

Oh! And one more problem I had with the gameplay was the Sphere Grid 2. It felt unnecessary, to be honest. You could customise the sphere grid in FFX, but not this crystal thing. To me, it felt like a slow, awkward way of just... levelling up. I would have much preferred they just used a job system like they did in FFV and FFX-2 (mostly like the one in FFX-2 :3). The camera being inverted while levelling up your crystals also annoyed me. I probably could have changed it in the options somewhere, but I never bothered to look.

The music was fine (except for them ruining the chocobo theme), but there was nothing memorable in the mix except for that one motif they used over and over. It's just a shame, because I've come out of every other Final Fantasy and had several of its tracks follow me forever.

The 'no towns' thing isn't really a problem, since it works in the world they've created. I am fine with the party being on the run and not having time to drop into a town and do some shopping. However, the linearity argument does hold some truth once you recognise all of the dungeons prior to Pulse (~20 hours in) follow a pattern. Walk - Cutscene - Walk - Mini-Boss - Cutscene - Walk - Cutscene - Boss - Cutscene. After a while, it feels less natural and more forced. The actual literal linearity of the dungeons can feel forced too, like in the city during the introduction and in the forest area later with Sazh and Vanille.

I think I've pretty much covered everything.

The Destructoid review words my feelings far more clearly, so you should probably just read that. I read the review after I lost interest in the game about ~25 hours in, so my feelings were not influenced by it.

As for the series, it's fine. FF9 is my favourite and I can't really list them after that. I like FF4, FF5, FF7, FF8 (pre-orphanage), FF10, FF10-2 (easily the best gameplay in the series). I could never get into FF6.

FF13 is pretty far down on the list. Above 12 at least, which I didn't like at all.

I much prefer the SMT series though.

[G-Train]

I'm impressed by the animation, for someone who struggles with stick-figures that kind of drawing/CGI always impresses me.

Gameplay however, doesn't seem to be my bag - though I've never really sat down and played it for any length of time, so not exactly an informed decision.

[JPW]

my god Aussies seem to be the most critical of this game.

Destructoids reviews remind me of IGN's attempt to review this game.

To be honest i've found FF13 very addictive.
And that because I didn't let the reviews get me down.

Despite the fact i've only played FFX, FF7, and FF3 I still find myself pretty new to the franchise.

But I really like this game. Yeah it's a bit different for longtime fans. But once in a while differentiality needs to be explored Who wants a game that is exactly the same as the last 12. Come on give me something different once in a while.

My main gripe with Final Fantasy is the open world.

At times the open world can get over rated and sometimes, especially like when you're on to something you just want to get on with the game but enemies are popping up everywhere. And it doesn't help that you're going cross country to the next part. So it gets a bit annoying.

But at times it can be quite fun. Especially when you're into it and you need to level up and you want to level up.

Like now i'm halfway through the side quests and I don't mind the enemies popping up when they do. I've got the time to burn I feel now.

Most of the time I feel the open world is forced upon you and you have to do like 2 hours of this in order to be ready for the next part. Then do another 2 hours in order to be ready for the next part.
I don't know I might just be slow.

But what the FF series has taught me is that you got to take the good with the bad in order to get the best out of the games. I'm still learning that today lol.

I will admit the storyline is quite weak at times. But to be honest some of the best games ever made end up having the same storylines over and over again(Mario, Zelda anyone?) .  But that never stops you playing them does it? I don't really judge games by storylines. It does help at times but most of the time it's just not worth it. It's better to just play it.

I actually like the challenge too. Getting your gil isn't that easy this time. The problem with most FF games is I always found myself having too much gil and there was nothing left to buy with it. It was like I spent all I needed too and I had like 100,000 left.

I actually found myself liking the Eidolon's. Lightning I actually like her Horse it's pretty fun. Snow's bike is pretty awesome. Sazh's Car is alright could be better. But I found Sazh better as an AI. Fang's has a different one the flying is actually quite different and does a lot of damage. Vanille's is pretty much alright. Hope's is probably the worst I find. There's no real interaction with that one you're using if from a distance.

I don't know how i've grown into this game so well. So many people seem to hate it.
I guess it's because I ignored all the reviews and I actually anticipated the game. And rather than just bash it even before it came out, and feeling like it's not like all  the others .
I found myself playing the game like it was a whole new experience.

[karaoke queen]

Never really got into the whole FF thing at the time but have always certainly  been interested in it.

However, my 19 year old daughter (who's a big fan) has been trying to talk me into it lately so I'll more than likely look into playing it as well.

[Dr Julz]

I'm a few hours into FF13 and I like it so far. I think it's cool that you can switch around the roles of characters and that the battles are so awesomely FAST!

[G-Train]

It bolds well for a certain someone that speed impresses you....(yes, Friends paraphrasing)

J/K ^_^

[admeister]

Glad to hear you're enjoying the battles Julz, I reckon FFXIII's battle system is one of the best in the series. It's just so action packed, with tactics changing rapdily, it's really well done.

[Batman]

I don't know. Tactics mostly consist of Use Libra -> Change accordingly -> Mash X. The game certainly wasn't hard.

[Napoleon Insists]

That's mostly it Batman... but the paradigm shift helps. Problem is there's an exact pattern you can follow for every battle with the same enemies, and you have so many of the same enemies it's not funny.

That's what really confuses me about this game. I'm about 8 hours in to it, more than I thought I'd get, and all I've done is battle and watch cutscenes. I've just played my first area without battles, which was a beach which lasted all of 30 seconds and then another cutscene.

Now, I understand the cutscene, but since when did people play Final Fantasy for battles? That's pretty much the worst part of the game. Especially when you walk in a straight line. I thought people knew that variety was the way to make a fun game, doubly so in something that lasts more than 12 hours. My favourite parts of my last proper Final Fantasy's, 7 and 8, were most of the non battle parts. Talking to dudes, gambling at the casino and doing little quests, exploring towns and buying armour and magic and all that. That feeling is completely lost. When you did go and have to do battles, well, there were few enough of the rubbish ones that it didn't bother you, and when you got into one of the proper areas, the locations and eventual bosses were cool enough to impress you. Now I mention those locations, I will say that I prefer the steampunky pre-rendered backgrounds of the PS1 games and fixed cameras. Makes stuff a bit more dramatic.

And, okay, let's finish with what I'm hating on most of all. The characters and the way they speak. Okay, I like Sazh. He's got cool fro physics and he doesn't over react to  and he talks like a real person, mostly. Lightning is nearly bearable. She's a bit stand offish, though she softened up all of a sudden. That's pretty unrealistic, especially in the context of what happened. There was actually no story to it. Well, a little bit, but it wasn't very well fleshed out, ya dig. Snow is next. He's not as bad as he was at the start of the game. All those retarded haircuts and 'tough mom' stuff really bugged me. And then he starts talking  about heros and that. That wanted to make me turn the game off. He's not as obnoxiously repulsive now, but it'll take a long time for me to forget that. Hope and Vanille both fill me with rage. It's like they put a munted 4 year old into a 20 year olds body for Vanille. I've never met someone so stupid. And then they give hints she's lonely and sad and it almost makes you feel sorry for her but she just doesn't fit, into anything. Hope, I rage at hope. Little weak douchebag who can't get a word out of his mouth. I swear, half the lines in this game are 'ugh, arg, uh, uh, ah, unghhh'. Nobody talks like that. I've never ever heard those sounds come out of a real persons mouth. If you hesitate when you're saying something, you either don't say something or you cut yourself off. You don't say 'unh!' and exhale loudly. It makes me RAGE!!

I'm still playing, but I'm not happy with it.

[Batman]

The relationships between the characters are pretty weak.
Sazh and Vanille are close. Sazh has no real connection to any other party member, except Lightning slightly. Vanille has no real connection to any other party member except Fang (who doesn't make an appearance until much later) and Hope slightly.
Lightning and Hope are close. Lightning has no real connection to any other party members except Sazh and Snow slightly. Hope... Vanille, Snow slightly (eventually, WHAT A SURPRISING TWIST).
Etc. etc.

It really just made me wonder why they were working together at all.

Also the voice acting of half the cast sucked.

Oh my I only just saw this post.

my god Aussies seem to be the most critical of this game.

Japan seems the most critical of the game. I haven't heard much of the game from Australian people.

But I really like this game. Yeah it's a bit different for longtime fans. But once in a while differentiality needs to be explored Who wants a game that is exactly the same as the last 12. Come on give me something different once in a while.

I don't think I've ever heard anybody complain about FF13 being too different. That certainly wasn't one of my problems with the game. That being said, despite some common themes, I don't think one Final Fantasy is all that similar to another. FF13 feels like business as usual in a Final Fantasy sequel for me, except it doesn't really have any of the series' trademarks save for Chocobos.

I will admit the storyline is quite weak at times. But to be honest some of the best games ever made end up having the same storylines over and over again(Mario, Zelda anyone?) .  But that never stops you playing them does it? I don't really judge games by storylines. It does help at times but most of the time it's just not worth it. It's better to just play it.

Mario and Zelda aren't jRPGs. You play jRPGs for the narrative. The gameplay in FF13 certainly does not hold up to a Mario or Zelda game. Why are you playing jRPGs if you aren't in it for the storyline?

I actually like the challenge too. Getting your gil isn't that easy this time. The problem with most FF games is I always found myself having too much gil and there was nothing left to buy with it. It was like I spent all I needed too and I had like 100,000 left.

Having enough Gil isn't really any more of a challenge than having too much Gil. Either way you're able to buy what you want. I was able to buy whatever I had to in FF13 without having to farm for materials to sell.

I actually found myself liking the Eidolon's. Lightning I actually like her Horse it's pretty fun. Snow's bike is pretty awesome. Sazh's Car is alright could be better. But I found Sazh better as an AI. Fang's has a different one the flying is actually quite different and does a lot of damage. Vanille's is pretty much alright. Hope's is probably the worst I find. There's no real interaction with that one you're using if from a distance.

Eidolons are literally useless. They do very little damage and do not aid in staggering enemies at all.

I don't know how i've grown into this game so well. So many people seem to hate it.
I guess it's because I ignored all the reviews and I actually anticipated the game. And rather than just bash it even before it came out, and feeling like it's not like all  the others .
I found myself playing the game like it was a whole new experience.

I dislike it for the many, many reasons I gave above. The reviews I agree with most were published well after I had written my feelings about the game. The main complaints I had heard about the game before playing it were NO TOWNS LINEAR PATHS BLAH BLAH and those things were very, very far from the biggest problems with the game.

[admeister]

Eidolons aren't useless, they do as much damage as your party combined, and can act as a bit of free chaining on an enemy since you can't die. Not only that, but later on in the game they become the only way to break the damage limit of 99,999 which is very useful and nets you a gold trophy to boot.

[Batman]

Summons, for most of the game, do far less damage than any party members. Any progress they make with the stagger bar also disappears once they go away. Their only use is to serve as a free heal/revive when you're in a tight spot.

[admeister]

Their progress with the stagger bar doesn't go away though... That's one of the reasons why they're useful. I'm pretty sure I'm remembering this right.