Has anyone gotten/played it? What does everyone think?

I have not played it and don't have a PS3 or 360 but my friend is considering it and if he gets it god knows how often i'll be bumming in his apartment playing

The battle system actually sounds really neat to me and the graphics and story sounds like it'll live up to expectations ... I heard it was really linear though (not just in gameplay but literally the dungeons are straight lines?)

FF has always been fairly linear, thore moreso since they removed the effing world maps.

I'll pick it up once its down in a price a little. Mostly because I've been let down by everything since the PSX.

It's pretty. I'm only about 1.5 hours in so far though. Can't really judge it yet, cause it starts off slow, like almost every other FF game.

Was going to capitalize on the Toys R Us deals ($20 off buying two games, $13 gift card for buying FFXIII, & $10 off $50), but nope Heavy Rain has to be sold out. So I'm hoping on Thursday I can pick up FFXIII and Heavy Rain.

Actually, it starts off, and continues to be slow through an entire third of the game. Not like a FF game of the past. You don't even get to pick your party for a vast portion of the game, and they're split into twos. All in all this FF game has gotten pretty abysmal reviews in general.

ps3 has no games

o yah?

Oh man.

I crack a smile every time I reach the last panel of that comic, I don't know why. That drawing... eh o.O

I thought that was pretty standard in games ..

Uh, no? Not at all?

Well, all the (party based) games I've played are like that, at the very least.
So ignorance wins for me on this one.

Final Fantasy 4... Large portions of FF6...

Were all forced into groups of twos where the characters between them rarely if ever interact? I didn't think so.

FF4 frequently forced you into group sizes smaller than the max of 5.

And I've played about 4 hours of 13 so far and have already been running around with a party of 3 for quite some time... But obviously I should let the "pretty abysmal reviews in general" shape my opinion of the game. (How exactly does 82/84 on Metacritic equate to "pretty abysmal reviews in general" anyway?)

Cool Matty is just like a fan boy/girl .. but he's hating on it instead of getting excited.

I probably won't play it any time soon, I don't have an (working) xbox and don't plan on getting one soon. But it will be the first purchase when I do get one.

That being said, I stand by my opinion that it is going to be a good game because some people I know, and whose opinion I trust, have either already beaten it (JP version on PS3) or are playing it now (US release), have said it's good.

Don't want to play it? Fine. But every time I've seen FFXIII mentioned on here, I see CM saying being like "its gonna suck". And I think we all know here that reviews are not everything.

Because scores don't always translate to the actual review content? Joystiq's review, for instance, talks about how you have to trudge through 15 hours before the game picks up. That's ridiculous by any standard.

It seems to me that lots of reviews and players pretend to like the game just because it's Final Fantasy. I wanted this game from the moment I heard about it, but then my hopes were dashed to hell when all I heard was how lackluster the gameplay and story was. Even my friends are attempting to return it and exchange it.

Just because it's Final Fantasy doesn't mean it's automatically a great game. There are games before it that have faults of their own, comparable to what I could mention. However, what they didn't have, was a grand sum of all the faults.

indeed, heck, I dont think you can do party management in IX until you get into the second disc.

Also, I have no problem with the lack of world maps, as usualy they are just as linear as if there wasnt any in the first place.

For an example of why a non linear world map (one that "lets" you go anywhere from the start), go play final fantasy II (as in, the one that was originaly for the famicom), as you can find yourself amoung some very high level enemies by taking a wrong turn right at the start of the game.

Wow. Uh,... after Final Fantasy 12 I don't think I could stand that combat system.

So far it seems to be a perfectly respectable JRPG, but to be honest I think the golden age of Final Fantasy is over. I'm sure I will enjoy the game a lot but so far it seems like they've dumbed it down to the extent of being an interactive cutscene (say what you like, they never felt like this to me pre-FF10).

I miss Nobuo Uematsu.

I wish I had your friends then, because I get the exact opposite.



Then you joined in the last 6 months. I didn't start going "it's gonna suck" until tons of reviews came out in Japan (a country full of magazines that typically adore Final Fantasy) that it was pretty bad. Hell, when I saw the trailer last summer, I was so psyched for it you wouldn't believe.

Reviews aren't everything, but you know it's pretty popular of an opinion when you have Square actually releasing press statements to try and counter it.

I haven't been impressed with the FF series since Squaresoft became Square-Enix.

FFX was the last fun FF game to me. FFXI was meh (yes it counts), and FFXII was a good game, but boring story, too repetitive, too much like an MMO.

He's doing every piece of music for FFXIV.

It's on my gamefly list, but I'm not chomping at the bit to get it. I'd like to see how it plays out. I'm pretty unique in my idea that FFXII is one of my favorite games of all time, and the idea that FFXIII would take away the small amount of non-linearity 12 offered seems pretty constricting to me.

I wonder how the Xbox 360 fanbois are taking it considering the PS3 version is superior




And I have the exact opposite of you. Not to mention Famitsu (the MOST respected Japanese video game review magazine) gave it a close to perfect score. What's your point?


Famitsu scores of previous FF Games (out of 40):

12 was one of my favorite, and I'm starting to like 13 more after the first couple of hours. The first 2 or so hours really were just setup where you had practically no combat options other than attack or use potions. After that though, they start throwing new stuff at you pretty quick it seems. I stopped after getting the first eidolon, so that's one more combat mechanic I get to adjust to once I start playing again.

It definitely has been more or less running in a straight line (not literally, as the maps do start getting a little twisty and have open areas with nooks and crannies for you to search for chests and stuff) so far, but really I don't have a problem with that. I'm definitely not of the opinion that open world stuff is always necessarily better. There were times in the old games when that got pretty boring to me, the whole aspect of "I'm here, I know I need to go here to advance the story, and I know if I go here, here, or here, there will be some sort of side quest or town with new items".

I could never enjoy a Final Fantasy game after III (US) / VI (JAP). I just don't know why, but they constantly rub me the wrong way and/or bore me to tears after a while. I'm just not the target audience for this type of game.

What I want is a new Shining Force game.

I think you meant most popular, not most respected. That rundown of every FF game just shows a general uselessness behind their reviews of FF in general. And Wikipedia gives more than just a little mention of the issues reviewers had.

Of course, what's my point? That the game has lost its RPG flavor. It's now on rails, more rails than even an RPG typically has. The level up system has also been broken horribly, apparently, requiring long periods of "experience spending" at later levels.

Upgrading weapons is not encouraged but punished. You are given the opportunity to boost the power of your weapon, and if you choose to do so, you'll soon find that taking up any new weapon you come across becomes a downgrade, or a significant time sink to make it as good as your currently leveled up weapon.

Dungeons consist of holding forward until you reach the end and killing the "MISSION" target. Custom party setup is punished by the inability to save your party's strategems between character changes.

Speaking of dungeons, those that attempt to break up the monotony of walking forward do so in such a way that it is actually faster to ignore the intended route and just keep going forward anyway.

The story suffers due to complete compartmentalization of the characters into small groups where they do not interact as a whole until the end. There is actually a part of the game where two of the characters actually say this:

"Why are we here?"
"Looks like we're supposed to get stronger."



Repetitive actions such as opening treasures (floating orbs) make Zelda's "NEW THING" scene seem short and speedy.

The "amazing battle scenes" become boring as you begin to realize that the fancy physical attack combos become irrelevant, as more and more monsters become immune to physical attacks. That leaves your other "magical" characters to do the work, wherein they just stand there and do their thing, to no cinematic effect whatsoever. No camera movements, no fancy effects, just your same old battle scene. So much for cinematic experience there.

You only actually have control over one character, while the other one or two in your party are controlled by their strategems. Don't pick "defender" for your character, by the way. Unless you like standing there doing nothing while you wait for your computer controlled characters to do what they're supposed to do and finish the fight. And even if you don't pick defender, you're forced to sometimes anyway, which can leave you sitting there taunting and defending for minutes as you wait for your computer controlled character to finally be effectual.


Like I said before, there's a lot to complain about in this game. This is not a common theme for all RPGs.

you are not a special snowflake

because i agree with you

FF12 was amazing. I don't get why it gets such a bad rap from other fans of the series. The battle system was fun as ****.

I really enjoyed FF12. I'd probably enjoy FF13 too, but a massive RPG is the last thing I need at this point.

Actually, I'm looking back on conversations I had with my friends, and I do seem to remember "It does take a while to pick up", so I'll give you that one CM



I'm reading some old press releases about the Xbox version .. all the people complaining about 3 discs crack me up .. I guess they forgot about the numerous discs in the days of PS1 on their 'superior' Playstation. Haha.

I'm completely broke, and what little money I have I've been trying to save for a trip across the country to visit some friends .. but I think I might say "screw them" and pick up the FF Xbox at the end of the month. I need to get RE5 Gold too... I want that more than this game.

And once again CM is complaining about something he's never tried.

I just remembered that I have a £20 gift card for HMV so I might grab it on Friday unless Heavy Rain takes my fancy. I do find it odd that there isn't a short 13 demo though - I can remember one for at least the last 5.

I know these games have a segment of people that love them, but I never will.
Just not my thing.