Just finished the first Final Fantasy 13

[dd614]

13 and 13-2 were both fine. Different from traditional FF but still fine. 13 in particularly had some good challenges, especially the cieth stone challenges and Long Gui.

[Chelly]

Burn FF13 and anything associated with that goddamn terrible character Lightning, literally the biggest pile of dogs hit to come out of that company.

That's kinda impossible. The current director absolutely loves Lightning. She's his waifu.
Just look at the roses during Lightning Return's reveal.


http://www.novacrystallis.com/2013/1...eavy-spoilers/

Director, Toriyama Motomu: The story of Lightning, which began with “FFXIII”, is finally coming to a close. With this being the first trilogy in the Final Fantasy Series, we have indeed walked a long road with her. Personally, I kind of feel like a father walking his beloved daughter down the flowery aisle – it’s both happy but also lonely to see her go. In this final game, players will have the opportunity to create their very own Lightning. Outfits have a wide variety of options, ranging from a beautiful wedding-like dress to a sharp suit. We hope you will enjoy the many different sides of Lightning. Let us celebrate the grand finale of Lightning and the “FFXIII” trilogy together.

Guy has such a huge boner for her it's unbelievable.

[Dezerte]

FF13-2 gameplay-wise, is an improvement over FF13. The story however is still as far-fetched and confusing. Lightning Returns doesn't appeal to me at all, I think they've strayed too far from the FF-path on that one (gameplay-wise).

[Dragoncurry]

I know I'm very slow but I always hated it to be honest. My last true Final Fantasy was 12 hehe.

I just forced myself to finish it because I'm curious about the sequels (I have both ff13 part 2 and the Lightning return)

So my question is: is there a major improvements in the second one and the third one compare to the first FF13? because in my personal opinion it was one of the worst of the entire FF series.

Please give me some feedback without spoiling the storyline for me because I didn't start the second one yet. :P

Thanks for reading.

I began my MBA program after finishing FF13. So I could raid Square Enix and take their fuckin licenses away.

[Milkyz]

Subjective.

I loved the combat system, characters and story. Manly tears by the end.

[Dragoncurry]

13 and 13-2 were both fine. Different from traditional FF but still fine. 13 in particularly had some good challenges, especially the cieth stone challenges and Long Gui.

And this is why games don't improve ladies and gentlemen.

[Danner]

Final Fantasy 10:
Suffered from The Tube (at least the first 3/4 of the game)
Suffered from a whiny androgynous brat taking the spotlight away from the cool points (Tidus)
Suffered from awful plot holes (f.ex, Jumping from Macadamia temple to that desert in 0 time due to ... "sin toxin"?)
Suffered from one or more main characters being retarded (Wakka being himself, Yuna going for marriage mid-quest)
Suffered from a main villain with a retarded plot (Seymour, whose entire existence revolved around getting into Yuna's pants)
Suffered from cringeworthy scenes (The laughter scene!)
Suffered from "every moral dilemma can be resolved by a bossfight" (killing Yunalesca)
Suffering from quidditch (blitzball)
Despite all that: Overall a good story told very well, in a very well-crafted world
Sin was an awesome antagonist
Best levelling system ever
Was fun to play and grind
Amazing, magnificent endgame
Verdict: loved it.

Final Fantasy 12:
Suffered from a whiny androgynous brat taking the spotlight away from the cool points (Vaan)
Suffering from having the wrong main character (Balthier, Ashe or Basch could all have been awesome as a MC)
Suffered from cringeworthy scenes ("I am Basch von Rozenburg!", most scenes involving Fran and her awful voice modulation)
Suffered from a story not being told properly (datalog explains what really happens, the main game scenes being confusing).
Suffered from poor pacing (4 hours grind through the desert oil platforms for unclear reasons leaving every player to forget the plot)
Open world, the antithesis of the tube
Slightly worse graphics than Final Fantasy 12, to be honest.
Was fun to play and grind
Verdict: Overall a slight disappointment, never hooked me as much as FF10.

Final Fantasy 13:
Suffered from The Tube (including the chapter where it wasn't a tube)
Suffered from a whiny androgynous brat taking the spotlight away from the cool points (Hope)
Suffered from awful plot holes (At best I can claim the stry had a self-contradicting plot)
Suffered from a main villain with a retarded plot ("I will have you kill me!")
Suffered from one or more main characters being retarded (Everyone: "oh, so you want us to kill you, to cause the end of the world? No way! We'll kill you instead!")
Suffered from cringeworthy scenes (Too many to include, many which involved Snow!)
Suffered from "every moral dilemma can be resolved by a bossfight" (Eidolon fights)
Suffered from a story not being told properly (datalog explains what really happens, the main game scenes being unrelated to the plot!!!).
Suffered from poor pacing (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/20...ely-interested.)
Had the plot for making a good story, but simply failed to deliver. Director failure.
Levelling system was automatic, gated by the story, and meaningless. Not meeting my requirements for an RPG as a result.
Combat was repetitive, automatic, and the best thing I can say about it was that it had excellent music
Endgame sucked donkey.
Verdict: Simply not fun.

[Fullmetal89]

Final Fantasy 12:
Suffered from a whiny androgynous brat taking the spotlight away from the cool points (Vaan)
Suffering from having the wrong main character (Balthier, Ashe or Basch could all have been awesome as a MC)
Suffered from cringeworthy scenes ("I am Basch von Rozenburg!", most scenes involving Fran and her awful voice modulation)
Suffered from a story not being told properly (datalog explains what really happens, the main game scenes being confusing).
Suffered from poor pacing (4 hours grind through the desert oil platforms for unclear reasons leaving every player to forget the plot)
Open world, the antithesis of the tube
Slightly worse graphics than Final Fantasy 12, to be honest.
Was fun to play and grind
Verdict: Overall a slight disappointment, never hooked me as much as FF10.

I love FF:12 but I agree 100% that Vaan was a terrible choice for MC. By the way I don't know if you knew this but originally the story of FF:XII was going to be seen through the eyes of Basch (who imo is one of the best written characters in FF series). Unfortunately because Square doesn't like to take risks they decided to appeal to the otakus and created Vaan like midway through the games planning. This is why the story wasn't as cohesive as it could have been, and why Vaan starts off as the main character then simple gets left behind midway through the story as Ashe/Balthier and Basch take the spotlight.

Also want to add that FF:XII came from the team that made Tactics Ogre, FF:Tactics and Bravely Default.


Quote from Wikipedia about the development:

Basch was initially meant to be the main character of the story, but the focus was eventually shifted to Vaan and Penelo when the two characters were created later in development.^[66] The development team explained that their previous game, Vagrant Story, which featured a "strong man in his prime" as the protagonist had been unsuccessful and unpopular; the change regarding Final Fantasy XII from a "big and tough" protagonist to a younger, youthful one was thus decided after targeting demographics were considered. With the casting of dorama actor Kouhei Takedafor the voice acting and motion capture, Vaan became less feminine and more "active, upbeat bright and positive".............

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I love FF:12 but I agree 100% that Vaan was a terrible choice for MC. By the way I don't know if you knew this but originally the story of FF:XII was going to be seen through the eyes of Basch (who imo is one of the best written characters in FF series). Unfortunately because Square doesn't like to take risks they decided to appeal to the otakus and created Vaan like midway through the games planning. This is why the story wasn't as cohesive as it could have been, and why Vaan starts off as the main character then simple gets left behind midway through the story as Ashe/Balthier and Basch take the spotlight.

Also want to add that FF:XII came from the team that made Tactics Ogre, FF:Tactics and Bravely Default.


Quote from Wikipedia about the development:

Vaan isn't the main character; he's just a portal for the audience to see the story through. The game plot wouldn't have worked better if they just simply started off with Basch in a prison and Baltheir and co breaking him out; gradually introducing the world of Ivalice through Vaan's starter story was a great choice IMO.

[Sett]

I disagree. There's no reason for there to be no towns or a proper RPG after leaving Cocoon, which could have happened far sooner in the game than it did.

Honestly, with few exceptions, the entire series has pretty stellar music.

Grans Pulse was suppose to stir a feeling of abandonment/loss. The state of the ruins and what's left of Oerba emphasized on that. ( Really wished we could have exploded a lot more of Grans Pulse in FFXIII. )


When they were on Cocoon, they showed the crowd ( Cocoonians? ) being terrified. From when Lightning and Fang first met up to Snow's l'cie mark being shown on the TV. It reinforced the whole 'the world is scared of them' vibe. Having the typical shop and inn would break the that. Whether or not that was a good idea will vary from person to person. I do give SE props for trying something outside the usual in that regards.



Yeah. I guess the one thing that hasn't been diminished is their quality for having amazing music.

[unholytestament]

Vaan isn't the main character; he's just a portal for the audience to see the story through. The game plot wouldn't have worked better if they just simply started off with Basch in a prison and Baltheir and co breaking him out; gradually introducing the world of Ivalice through Vaan's starter story was a great choice IMO.

I disagree. There are scores of games that can introduce RPG worlds and flesh them out without an audience surrogate. Tidus kind of worked as an audience surrogate because he was a stranger in a strange land time and the story was built around him. Vaan didn't work because he already knew most of this stuff and the story didn't give a flying fuck about him (so neither did we).

I still liked 12 despite this. And I still hated Tidus as a character, despite enjoying 10 as a game.

[Pendulous]

Final Fantasy 10:
Suffered from awful plot holes (f.ex, Jumping from Macadamia temple to that desert in 0 time due to ... "sin toxin"?)

No, carried there by Sin.

Suffered from one or more main characters being retarded (Wakka being himself, Yuna going for marriage mid-quest)

Wakka was lame (but at least John Dimaggio). Yuna going for marriage was a ploy to get close to Seymour to kill him. The second time anyway. the first time is a bit of a stretch, but you have to feel the nature of the world they live in. In a world where everyone dies every ten years, keeping everyone together emotionally was a big deal.

Suffered from a main villain with a retarded plot (Seymour, whose entire existence revolved around getting into Yuna's pants)

Seymour never likely wanted to "be" with Yuna. He was always intent on becoming Sin. Also, he's not really the main vilain. FF10 comes with a recurring theme of the main villain being completely out of the scene until the very end of the game. FF9 had necron, FF12 had Venat...in a way. Here, Yu Yevon was the bad guy who kept reviving Sin.

Suffered from cringeworthy scenes (The laughter scene!)

Yeah, everyone harps on this scene, and it may be cringeworthy, but it's supposed to be. Yuna is on a quest to basically kill herself, and Tidus just found out his dad is the big giant evil guy that's gonna kill everyone. They were supposed to be forcing laughter, and you can tell this because they start to genuinely laugh at themselves at the end.

Suffering from quidditch (blitzball)

Suffered? It wasn't the best, but it was super fun to play. It was a little too grindy, but it definitely didn't cause the game to "suffer"

[Gandrake]

I sincerely believe that FFXIII is one of the most disappointing and worst releases in gaming History. I also believe that the next 2 games in the series were significantly better even though I still had quite a few upsets with FFXIII-2. It was, however, significantly better.

I actually never finished FFXIII; it was so long and boring and I didn't really like a lot of the characters. I thought they were the best in FFXIII-2, but just couldn't take any of them seriously in FFXIII: LR.

So yeah, in my opinion, the games do get better.

[Velshin]

I love FF:12 but I agree 100% that Vaan was a terrible choice for MC. By the way I don't know if you knew this but originally the story of FF:XII was going to be seen through the eyes of Basch (who imo is one of the best written characters in FF series). Unfortunately because Square doesn't like to take risks they decided to appeal to the otakus and created Vaan like midway through the games planning. This is why the story wasn't as cohesive as it could have been, and why Vaan starts off as the main character then simple gets left behind midway through the story as Ashe/Balthier and Basch take the spotlight.

Also want to add that FF:XII came from the team that made Tactics Ogre, FF:Tactics and Bravely Default.


Quote from Wikipedia about the development:

Yeah what I like about FF12 is the world of Ivalice which the same world as FFT and Vagrant Story (awesome world and atmosphere).

[Kickbuttmario]

Vaan isn't the main character; he's just a portal for the audience to see the story through. The game plot wouldn't have worked better if they just simply started off with Basch in a prison and Baltheir and co breaking him out; gradually introducing the world of Ivalice through Vaan's starter story was a great choice IMO.

Main character was Vayne Solidor. God damn that guy was awesome. Fantastic voice acting, villain, and overall character. Amazing job he was.

[Danner]

I love FF:12 but I agree 100% that Vaan was a terrible choice for MC. By the way I don't know if you knew this but originally the story of FF:XII was going to be seen through the eyes of Basch (who imo is one of the best written characters in FF series). Unfortunately because Square doesn't like to take risks they decided to appeal to the otakus and created Vaan like midway through the games planning. This is why the story wasn't as cohesive as it could have been, and why Vaan starts off as the main character then simple gets left behind midway through the story as Ashe/Balthier and Basch take the spotlight.

I found this to be the best summary of the Vaan character:
http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=ff12

The rumours are indeed true and Vaan is the least plot-important playable character. So far that's established. However, Vaan fills a vital role in the party that I can't remember any other character in any Final Fantasy I've played (i.e. 1-10) filling so obviously. Vaan is the official party bitch.

I can just imagine a usual party meeting in the back room of a Rabanastre tavern:

Basch: Vayne gathers his forces. We must hurry and find a way to stop him, else all is lost.

Ashe: Let us leave at once for the mystical temple and seek the mystical stone.

Balthier: Good thinking, but we should go along the coast. The empire's troops won't be looking for us there.

Vaan: Coast? We're going to the beach? Awesome, I'm packing my swimming trunks!

Silence.

Balthier: Vaan. Vaan, why don't you go out and buy us a few new suits of armour? A few hundred potions and remedies, too. Be so kind, would you? Oh, and pick up my shirts from the laundromat while you're out, there's a dear.

At which point you, the player, take over and guide Vaan through an exciting city adventure full of calculating prizes and haggling with merchants. This is the reason you only ever play as Vaan inside cities.

At least it's a change from the usual "The main villain grew him in a vat."

- - - Updated - - -

Main character was Vayne Solidor. God damn that guy was awesome. Fantastic voice acting, villain, and overall character. Amazing job he was.

Word! Bad-ass antagonist. He was the best part of the game cast.

[Deleted]

Word! Bad-ass antagonist. He was the best part of the game cast.

Barely remember him. FF 12 was overall a very forgettable experience. Don't even remember what it was about.

[Deleted]

Haven't played LR yet, but both FF13 and 13-2 had too many downsides and too little upsides for me to like them. Actually didn't play FF13 through in one go, which was a first for me. FF13-2 fixed some of my issues with the first game, but introduced new ones. It was the ending (and "To be continued") that killed it though.

I have given up on FF games being my JRPG food. I may or may not play them, but I'm not giddy with anticipation. Instead, I hope for more games from the Ar Tonelico series. That's my new JRPG fix (up to the point that I spent 50 bucks on a PS2 game just a week ago)

[Velshin]

Haven't played LR yet, but both FF13 and 13-2 had too many downsides and too little upsides for me to like them. Actually didn't play FF13 through in one go, which was a first for me. FF13-2 fixed some of my issues with the first game, but introduced new ones. It was the ending (and "To be continued") that killed it though.

I have given up on FF games being my JRPG food. I may or may not play them, but I'm not giddy with anticipation. Instead, I hope for more games from the Ar Tonelico series. That's my new JRPG fix (up to the point that I spent 50 bucks on a PS2 game just a week ago)

I agree with you indeed FF series ha lost a lot of it's core JRPG atmosphere. At the moment I'm playing Tales of Graces in the ps3 I'm glad the tales series still retaining the old JRPG atmosphere and not to be corrupted by modern RPGs of these days I'm glad this series is not ruined as the FF series.

[Keile]

Congratulations on making it out of "The Hallway".
Saddly they do not improve much from there....