Squeenix Final Fantasy XIII

[Bahamut]

FF have always been pretty linear (with optional sidequests sprinkled around) and full of trash battles, so the reactions were mainly about the story taking way too long to pick up. About the corridors, FF12 had big open areas and people called it a "singleplayer MMO", so maybe Square took the criticism a bit too seriously.

Still, FF's up to IX gave pretty good illussion of openes, many of sidestuff was placed between the main story. XII was slapped with XI mmo combat, but for me it was way better than X and XIII

 

[Machocruz]

FF 1-9 had worlds that stretched out in multiple directions, even if the progression was mostly linear. FF13s first 12-15 hours are pathways connected by cutscenes. There is no illusion of a cohesive whole. The artifice is just too much. They're not even good from the perspective of dungeon crawling, unlike the corridors of FFXII. I could have tolerated the flip-a-switch combat and utterly hack storytelling in a setting that didn't feel sterile, which is why I'm in agreement with the consensus that the game gits (kind of) gud when you get to Gran Pulse.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I guess I have higher tolerance for linearity than most, then. It isn't the corridors as such that I minded in the first chapters, but rather how slow combat was to pick up.

As for the story, while I can't judge it as a whole yet, I actually liked the simple political backdrop and how you basically played a (half-willing, half-reluctant) resistance/rebel/terrorist group until a big bad guy made a big reveal (spoilers duh), at which point the story essentially became, let's say, theological instead of just personal-meets-political. However, I also thought all FF stories were essentially the same and nothing special (tbh I have a hard time even recalling any of them).

 

[Machocruz]

It's not the plot (although I didn't care for that either), but the execution of the storytelling. Within the first 10-15 minutes of the game we get a death, accompanied by closeups of pained faces and music that screams "this is tragic and sad!" They assume that we care or were invested in the character when we've only spent minutes with them. They didn't earn the moment. It's fast food melodrama that reminds me of Hollywood blockbuster films from the likes of Bay and Roland Emmerich - calculated and focus tested for maximum emotional engagement™. Previous FF are guilty of the same, but when X added the element of voice acting, it magnified the hackery and formulaic nature of their dramatic approach. The best FF stories imo are the ones that lean towards levity and youthful adventure tone, like 6 and 9. 6 had dark moments, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Maybe I'm cynical, but their attempts to move the audience in 7,10, and 13 are clumsy and obvious.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Oh yeah, that kind of melodramatic cinematic stuff is awful for sure.

And yeah, I'd probably also single out FF9 (and possibly 6, I really need to get back to that one).

 

[Diablo169]

Too much of the back story is in the Data-log. If more of that world building had been in the actual game I think I could have liked the story more.

 

[felipepepe]

Maybe I'm cynical, but their attempts to move the audience in 7,10, and 13 are clumsy and obvious.

I personally think that FF8 does a good job at melodrama, at least until the plot moves from coming of age to "space sorceress from teh future!"

 

[Crooked Bee]

Too much of the back story is in the Data-log. If more of that world building had been in the actual game I think I could have liked the story more.

I found it amusing they even had to spell out the characters' emotions in the datalog: Lightning felt this, Hope felt that, etc.. Couldn't you have communicated those better instead, especially given the kind of cinematic budget you had?

 

[Raghar]

I liked this investigation:

The Mi'ihen Highroad Mystery is a sidequest in Final Fantasy X-2 that takes place during Chapter 4. Rin asks Yuna, Rikku and Paine to help him investigate two separate incidents that occurred on the Mi'ihen Highroad; a hover crashing on the Oldroad and the sentry machina going haywire.

You can work really hard and accuse 5 different suspects, and provide undeniable proof.

Suspect 1. Chocobo eater: they removed Chocobos from the area, and he was hungry, thus it attacked bikes with riders and tried to munch them.
Suspect 2. Propet: He wanted Chocobos to return into the area, and return of nature.
Suspect 3. Calli: She wanted to ride Chocobo, but when she arrived to get her own Chocobo friend, Chocobo eater ate him, and that retard Rin didn't allow Chocobos in the area.
Suspect 4. Riku: She jumped on mecha, and caused mailfunction. Because everyone was connected with the mailfunctioning macha, every mecha in the area had malfunction because of Riku. Remember the theme of FF X-2 was "everyone is connected". Well throwing it on Rikku would make everyone happy with exception of Rikku, and who cares about that when party gets a new dress sphere grid which is TOTALLY AWESOME and save Rikku's butt.
Suspect 5 Rin: Yuna's wicked genius has no bound and can rightfully accuse everyone even the person who asked them to make the investigation, because they were just a bunch of amateurs and how bunch of amateurs can cause any harm.

(BTW in case you are currious how she did that: She and Shinra installed watch spheres around the road, and she called Rin to investigate stuff around.
After Yuna asked him about 11 times to move from one sphere and investigate, then go back to the original sphere and investigate again, he said fuck that and went home. Yuna got unambiguous conclusion: "He claimed didn't find anything, and now he doesn't even appear when we call him for 15x, that's suspicious." Then quickly disconnected in case Rin would appear.

A bit warning don't accuse Prophet, or Rin. Or you would miss chance for certain interesting dresses.

The real culprit was of course Rin.


Well in FF X-2, you can occasionally do really weird shit, and it's interesting. For example, rescuing a person from people with assault riffles who are trying to find him because he borrowed theirs money, and din't pay back yet even when it's past deadline for few weeks already.

I miss that attention for details and minor stuff that could be done. Also it had great funny moments.

FF X-2 had blitzball, and that game.
FF XIII should have jump over adamantoise as a minigame. And it should also have some card game, to relax after beat them up stuff. Actually there was quite a lot of beat them up stuff. Dialogues, interactions, possibility to piss off government even more... I wonder why nobody even though about that.

 

[Machocruz]

I remember FF9 having some decent side content. I really liked that world. I'm actually not a fan of completely open worlds in RPGs. I'm task and result oriented. I explore to find things that are useful or content that is substantial, hence why Morrowind is the only open world RPG I can enjoy for exploring, because of the good items and wealth you can find, and because it has the most interesting sights to see. Other than that, I prefer something more focused and purposeful.

 

[Grinolf]

I seem to remember lower scores. But even so, it's been treated like the worst game ever and completely unplayable on the Codex and other sites. Especially by those who liked the rest of the FF serirs. The game has plenty of issues, but it's... Well... Good for what it is: A decent interactive movie with bits of actual game poking through here and there.

I have absolutely no idea why something described as "interactive movie with bits of actual game poking through here and there" is so unpopular here...
But on serious note I wouln't mind it so much if it really was at least decent. But it isn't.

 

[Grimwulf]

Maybe I'm cynical, but their attempts to move the audience in 7,10, and 13 are clumsy and obvious.

I personally think that FF8 does a good job at melodrama, at least until the plot moves from coming of age to "space sorceress from teh future!"

FF 8 is The Final Fantasy in a nutshell. In the very intro we fight our antagonist, a crestfallen knight, manipulated by a sorceress, who is control by another sorceress from future, who wants to resurect yet another sorceress from distant past, who will destroy the world.

Best. Story. Evar.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Wait, is the "different weather makes different monsters appear" feature really only used once throughout the entire game in what is basically a tutorial? Talk about cut corners. I really expected it to become important again on Gran Pulse.

Also, I saw a couple of Pulse quests that mentioned specific times of day (e.g. There is a Whatshisname that appears at dawn near the pond), so I assume the day-night cycle was cut, too.

Overall, I both like and dislike chapter 11. Some fun fights as well as secrets to explore, but it also feels kinda rushed and incomplete somehow.

 

[Raghar]

Gran Pulse doesn't have an artificial weather control.

 

[Delterius]

Suspect 5 Rin: [Because Yuna is really stupid]

The real culprit was of course Rin.

What.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Gran Pulse doesn't have an artificial weather control.

Yeah, well, that was my point.

No weather (despite that mechanic having been specifically introduced earlier) and no day/night cycles (despite traces thereof in the quest descriptions). Looks like cut content to me.

 

[Raghar]

Suspect 5 Rin: [Because Yuna is really stupid]

The real culprit was of course Rin.

What.

You never seen that coming, right?

(It's one of things they done correctly, if they didn't screw up Yuna's personality, it would be liked by fans.)

Spoiler

Well his demise was: They screwed up and one observation sphere fallen into ravine. Rin knew about these that were properly installed and working, thus he could plan movement around to not be suspicious.
Then Shinra came: "I managed to activate that sphere that fell into ravine. See? I'm genius." Rin never heard about that sphere. Thus he was talking freely with... (But talking with ... was nothing that appeared to have anything with the case, and if you ask Rin about that you'd give him time to make excuse and hide tracks. At that stage of investigation, there are other culprits.)
Well after one of these watching sphere was damaged (because it could see something), when you switched fast enough, you could see Rin on distance moving in the area, and nobody else.

When you look at details, you can see: There are multiple correct culprits that did that simultaneously. While Riku hit the mecha and caused malfunction, it appears that another mecha would have malfunction as well, because when Rin connected them together it spread. Then there was Chocobo eater of course, Riku, and well I doubt Prophet was able to do much, but he tried.

(Of course, after Riku finishes her horrible punishment, she comes with "look what I found on the road during cleaning". So it's probably worthy to finish the wildlife preservation of Chocobo eaters quest (also called "lets accuse Riku") during one playtrough.)

 

[PocketMine]

Gran Pulse doesn't have an artificial weather control.

Gran pulse actualy has a weather control system. accepting side missions from cieth stone circle (missions 56-62) will change the weather to foggy. this affects drop rates and spawn place of certain easter egg.

 

[Delterius]

Suspect 5 Rin: [Because Yuna is really stupid]

The real culprit was of course Rin.

What.

You never seen that coming, right?

I sure didn't.

Spoiler

Not seeing it coming is a recurring theme of the game, though.

 

[felipepepe]

Nonsense, once FF X ended, I totally told my brother "wanna bet they'll make a sequel, with Yuna as a gun-wielding J-Pop singer?"

It was so obvious.

 

[Delterius]

I mean, sure, there was this whole context.

VI Kefka.

VII Emo-ness and Angst.

VIII WTFISGOINGON.

IX Bobblehead Hell.

X Colorful Emo-ness and Angst -- so we are full circle.

X-II Former Nun, J-Pop singing Charlies' Angels.

XII Holy Inquisition with Flying Ships. Tactics becomes Star Wars.

But not all of us were born with inherent Marketeer-majicks, Felipepepe. We can't all look at the world and immediately print mental charts on Final Fantasy's cyclical whimsy.

 

[felipepepe]

I've seen things bro... know those FF XV trailers, with the BFFs going on a roadtrip? The car is actually the hero's father, cursed by a transexual accountant from an alternate dimension. But you'll only find that out in the end, when you're forced to eat the car and become Mecha Bahamut, finnally defeating Lilith and returning man to Eden.

 

[Raghar]

Suspect 5 Rin: [Because Yuna is really stupid]

The real culprit was of course Rin.

What.

You never seen that coming, right?

I sure didn't.

Spoiler

Not seeing it coming is a recurring theme of the game, though.

3 seconds later is fight where Riku and Paine are trying to mercilessly slaughter the person on stage. Which is recurring theme for what players wants to do when they are playing the game.

I actually like when games are trying to do unexpected things, it destroys monotony of we must save the world normal stories. Thought Kefka was funny guy.

Spoiler

You should shown this stuff as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKs7MjpltfM Thought there are massive spoilers. Remember first song is better in Japanese, the second in English.

 

[Crooked Bee]

On a somewhat related note, apparently Squeenix is quite happy with how its back catalogue has been doing in the West:

Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix today announced financial results for the six-month period ended September 30, and they were strong. Overall, the Japanese publisher posted revenue of ¥73.1 billion ($637.6 million), compared to ¥61.6 billion ($537.5 million) last year. Meanwhile, profit more than doubled, rising from ¥2.6 billion ($22.7 million) last year to ¥5.7 billion ($49.7 million) this year.

Square Enix said its games for smartphones and PC, such as Dragon Quest Monsters Super Light, Schoolgirls Strikers, and Sengoku IXA "continued to post favorable results." Meanwhile, console game sales increased year-over-year, and back catalog sales were particularly "strong" in the Western market, Square Enix said. On top of those, the publisher said its MMO Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest X have been making "favorable progress."

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/square-enix-profits-more-than-double-year-over-yea/1100-6423405/

I hope that means not only the FFXIII trilogy, but also FFXV and Type-0 will come to the PC eventually.

 

[felipepepe]

FFXV is a given, their new engine is made to export easily to any platform imaginable...



...including smartphones.