Will FFXIII ever be appreciated?

[Arthoneceron]

I'm personally ofended with people saying "It's a good game, not a good FF game".

At best, you're saying FF XIII is mediocre. And you all are crazy.

Onimusha 2 is mediocre. Uncharted 3 is mediocre. Halo 4 is mediocre. And all them are fantastic if compared to XIII.

 

[Sheng Long]

I liked it. Especiually the music and battle system. The linear thing didn't bother me that much...the story seemed a bit confusing though as I look back on it again.

 

[Mage_of_Cinder]

FFXIII is a game I like and dislike at the same time. The combat was fun, after it's 20 hr tutorial.

Shaz was an awsome character and I felt for him. Hope, Vanille, and...that Beat looking dude...were just annoying.

It had pretty cool lore, if you were willing to spend the time to read it in the codex where entries seemed to pop in every few minutes.

"Blinded by Light" is a song I have yet to get tired of hearing. Some others, I really could have done without.

The graphics were amazing, but also reeked of ego; like as if the graphics could help you overlook ridiculous summon designs.

I didn't mind the linear progression and maps, what did bother me was confusing ending.

 

[spman2099]

I hope that one day the battle engine will get the respect it deserves. Unfortunately, it doesn't really open up and become fun until you are about ten hours into the game, so I understand why a lot of fans wrote it off, but it is legitimately pretty damn fun once you get into the nitty-gritty of it and chase those high scores in combat.

Also, as people have already mentioned, the soundtrack is very solid.

However, the story is just total infuriating, convoluted, melodramatic horseshit. It is bad in almost every way a story can be bad. The first ten hours are such a depressingly boring slog as the gameplay hasn't really kicked in yet in earnest. It is amazing that this game didn't get more hate, in all honesty.

 

[sibarraz]

Combat is amazing to this day, my favorite battle system in any ff game

Same with the music and the UI

Graphics were breath taking back in the day

In the other hand, there is a good chunk of design decision that will make this game age horrible (mainly level design, and story telling)

 

[Bromancer]

I thought FFXII was incredibly uninvolving, both in gameplay and story, but I realise it just has a style and vision I don't like. I can accept it's a fine game, just not a good FF. At least it has a living, breathing world.

FFXIII doesn't have that excuse. It seemed to be a return to eccentric character-focused story-heavy adventure, which is what I wanted, but the game completely missed the mark by having terrible characters and a dreadful story, revolving around the fate of a world I literally couldn't give two shits about because - I knew nothing about the world in question!

Spira was a corridor, but it was also a world I explored and lived, I got a feel for it and grew attached, weird as it may have been. In Cocoon the player was on the run from the very start and it was impossible to experience what normal life must be like in that world. We didn't really get to know the characters as they were either always under duress, or inappropriately cheeky (Vanille) and we never learned where most of them came from, literally and figuratively. Even the encyclopedia entries were mostly unrelatable mumbo jumbo about gods and magic, there was nothing human about it. If they had presented all this through cutscenes (which would've been better), I still doubt I would've care very much. By the time that ending happened I was literally laughing at how bad it was - not only had I lost interest in the story a long time ago, it couldn't even resolve itself in a sensible way.

FFXIII had a high-stakes story about the fate of the world (as usual for FF), but I really don't know how the game expected me to care if Cocoon went to shit. Nor did I care if the party reached their goal of... what exactly? What drove these people apart from the fact they were on the run and possibly being turned into zombies? Some waifu I saw in two cutscenes got turned to crystal, is that what I'm supposed to care about? They wanted to live and get away from this world? I guess they didn't care for Cocoon much either...

It's really quite amazing, it's like the creators had no idea what made earlier stories/settings good. As if wondering around in peaceful Kilika before Sin destroyed it, and living the slums of Midgar before they were crushed did nothing for the player's involvement in those games. Would anyone have shed a tear for Aeris if she was a girl who was killed in the first cutscenes she appeared in?

The battle system didn't stop FFXIII from being a good game, even if it was mostly missing for 20 hours, but it sure didn't save it from being bad. Obviously nice music and visuals, proof of talent that really shouldn't have been wasted on this project. FFXIII is so, so much less than the sum of its parts and rightly should never be held up as an example of how to make a game.

 

[Spikematic]

The game was a laughable mess and should be remembered as such. Even more laughable is the fact that it spawned TWO sequels. Go figure. Ah well, at least the music is stunning.

 

[EarthPainting]

I accepted FF13 for what it was pretty quickly. The development of these games has been getting out of hand for over a decade and a half now, resulting in uneven games with mixed receptions. I can't complain about the systems or production values, and the stories rarely work for me, so it usually comes down to how much I like the cast.