I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIII on my PS3 for the past few days and I have a few good and a lot of bad things to say about the game. I had high expectations for this since it’s coming from a line of really phenomenal games like FFVII and FFVIII. Even FFX was interesting to play. Anyway, my main problem with Final Fantasy XIII is that it does not play like Final Fantasy at all. It feels like I’m playing some new genre of RPG that wasn’t developed by Square Enix. Let me just break it down in a short pros and cons list for this article.
PROS
- Final Fantasy XIII has stunning graphics. From the animation to the background, everything is so detailed and it just comes to life especially if you’re playing on a big LCD TV. I’ve been playing it on a Samsung Series 5 32″ and it’s spectacular.
- Final Fantasy XIII has an equally impressive soundtrack. I’ve only played through a couple of chapters but I’m already itching to get me a copy of the OST! Simply amazing work here.
- Aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-use user interface. I love opening the menu. It’s great how Square made such a simple thing so amusing.
- I don’t know if everyone likes this but I’m loving the fast-paced real-time combat system.
CONS
- You can only play one character at a time. This is a big letdown for me. They try to redeem themselves by “automating” the experience by having you change roles of your comrades (via paradigms).
- Lousy camera angles and control. ‘Nuff said.
- Where’s the world map? I’ve been playing for a while now and I’ve yet to see the map.
- I’m not loving the story. It’s kinda boring.
- Too much emo with the characters. All the cut scenes are loaded with drama to the point that you’ll get annoyed with almost all of the characters, especially the main character: Lightning.
- It’s TOO LINEAR! It’s as if I’m watching a movie and not playing an RPG. It really doesn’t feel like FF at all.
Despite all my complaints, I’m still going to play and finish the game because this is still a Final Fantasy product, haha. I’m hoping that they redeem the game sometime in the middle so that after playing everything I won’t regret spending P2200+.
That’s it for now. Will be posting more stuff tomorrow. Cheers!
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
IMO the last true Final Fantasy was FFIX. Everything after that are poor attempts to recapture the “magic” and that includes all the various FF sequels. You would think that with improved graphics and more powerful systems the new FFs would become even better but they’ve been progressively getting worse. This started when Squaresoft became Square-Enix. Suddenly, company higher ups have more creative control over FF than the game and creative directors. The core team that brought us FF from the very beginning started to leave Square-Enix due to creative conflicts and their replacements aren’t doing as good as a job. Also the compulsion to bring something new and “improve” with each new FF and with each new game system just so they can say something is new or different is slowly erasing what fans loved about FF in the first place. When you start treating your Golden Goose as a Cash Cow it’ll eventually just turn into a Cow.
^ totally agree with the golden goose thing
/no1
We will see a lot of what will happen on the next Final Fantasy game series. Still looking forward on playing FFXIV Online.