Final Fantasy Series

[Vailintine]

I can't even think of one thing Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy XIII have in common. (At least nothing major.)

Well, I would recommend the game. I think it is a good entry, but the only question is weather the story will keep you going. Some of my friends bought both copies of the game (XIII and XIII-2) and haven't even completed it. Although they say they like it.

One of them hasn't even defeated Odin and he still bought XIII-2 without even popping it into the system. He says he likes it, and he actually understands the story better than most. But if the story bores you, your going to end up stopping.

[Arkthur_us]

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Vailintine wrote:

I can't even think of one thing Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy XIII have in common. (At least nothing major.)

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Actually, Lightning and Cloud have similar traits at the start of the game, thats the reason why she has been so over exposed all this time, just like Cloud was at his. They developed diferently tough.

[Vailintine]

What do you mean by "over exposed"?

[Icestar10]

I enjoyed playing Final Fantasy XIII.

[Joey-Kara_85]

Loved it and im sorry but in retrospect ff13/13-2 is the pinnacle of intelligent gaming

[Vailintine]

Glad you guys enjoy the game.

Joey-Kara_85, what is "the pinnacle of intelligent gaming" supposed to mean?

[Merton9999]

I loved XIII, and I've been playing FF games for 25 years.  It's hard when you start asking about what makes it a "bad game" because everyone tries to objectify their opinion and make it cannonical when they all differ.  Honestly I'm fine with someone saying it didn't appeal to them, but trying to make it about art and morals is too stuck in the college days for me.

I could go on for pages about what I enjoyed, but since you asked what makes it a bad game I'll actually just point out one thing I didn't like about it.  

I miss having an explorable world.  Some people will just say "world map" but I'm pretty specific about this.  I want to be able to wonder in a fantasy game.  I want to see a glimpse of the world I can one day visit and get excited about traveling there.  This was obviously available in FF 1-9 with a traditional old school world map.  I dreamed about what was on that little island on the northeast of  the screen days before I could finally go there.  I dreamt about what hidden locations I'd find.  It hits the traveller in me.  

Althought X got rid of he world map (until it was way too late, which felt insulting more than anything),  you could at least go back and wander around areas you visit.  But X is really the one that started the death of the exploration feeling to me.  XIII took it away completely, until Pulse, which I loved just for that reason.  Again, it just came too late.  

One of my favorite things about XIII-2 is the Historia Crux.  Although it's not a traditional world map, the fact that you can peer ahead at pictures that are still inaccessible (using the alternate view) brought back that sense of wonder to me.  I got super excited when I saw a skyscraper image for Academia and lived on the excitement for days.  XIII had nothing like that. 

[Vailintine]

I believe that when they create the game that way it's meant to say that logically it would be improbable to go back to the area, much less in the situation it was left in the end.

In XIII-2, however, you're time traveling. So in that stead, it would make sense if you went back in the exact same way you did at first or left it.

Why is it so important to be able to go back? Besides the curiosity of exploring, is there any real need to go back when there is nothing there?

In XIII, most of the areas were restrictively small, which in turn also limited the possibility of exploration. Did this bother anyone as much as the "world map" issue?

[Merton9999]

I definitely agree in the context of XIII's story that it wouldn't make sense to allow a return to the Cocoon areas.  You're also right that there's nothing to back for in terms of content.  

I'm not saying the way they designed this didn't make sense in the game world.  I just would have been happier had it not been designed that way.  Exploration and returning to old areas in previous games made sense with the story and offered rewards.  I missed this in XIII.

Having said that though, as a result of this design I thought the story was faster paced and more exciting than previous installments.  It was a decent trade-off, just not one that ultimately fits my taste.  

It's nitpicky from my perpective, fatal for others that really want some sense of free-roaming.  I always say the one thing that keeps me interested in the series as a whole is the drastic changes they make from game to game.  That doesn't mean I don't have a checklist of perfect features I'd love to be integrated into one game.  That's why I was so happy to see the Historia Crux alternate view with the glimpses of future areas.   

[Dark_arc]

Too many to explain, but as a summary for me:

• Weak character development (storywise)
• Counterintuitive leveling system, both for character development and item development
• Eidolon system really disappointed me
• Other things that take too long to talk about right now

I should say that these are things that were personal as problems. They were no objective problems, such as missing graphics, broken controls, etc. This is just what made it a bad game to me. However, I talked other people who played it after I beat it, and they had the same reasons for not liking it. It is a functioning game, but it does not hold my attention, nor does it draw me to it's sequels.