So, Final Fantasy 13 is pretty rad...

[halkun]

Ok, Here goes a semi-official Final Fantasy 13 Thread.

It's pretty cool.

Vanilla is really cute!

[sl1982]

I am loving it so far. Sure it is linear, but so were all the other ones. The only difference in this one is you cannot run wherever you feel like. I love the battle system, so fast paced. trying to get 5 stars on all the battles is a challenge once you get to chapter 3. And the paradigm shift is a really neat feature, gives you enough control over the AI to get things done without slowing down the pace of battle. Just hope i get to try out an eidolon soon.

[nfitc1]

Aww, it DID come out today, didn't it? Darn it, I missed it.

[Chocobo_Girl]

trying to get 5 stars on all the battles is a challenge once you get to chapter 3.

Sounds like guitar hero!  jk jk

Glad to hear some positive reactions from a new FF game! Haven't had that in a while. 

[halkun]

OMG, I just realized Vanilla is wearing bondage ropes... and wields a whip! (Cat-o-nine-tails none the less)
She has just gone from "Cute" to "Creepy".

That and Snow's finance is a little... ick. What is she? 11?

[Hellbringer616]

should have my PS3 friday, and my game to boot then i can join your conversation, watched some friends play. seems pretty damn awesome

[sl1982]

OMG, I just realized Vanilla is wearing bondage ropes... and wields a whip! (Cat-o-nine-tails none the less)
She has just gone from "Cute" to "Creepy".

That and Snow's finance is a little... ick. What is she? 11?

Nah she just seems 11 cuz she is wearing a catholic school girl outfit. Mind out of the gutter halkun!

[itoikenza]

seems like somebody already got the 3d models!

[Cloud187]

seems like somebody already got the 3d models!

lol looks more like xbox models than ps3 lmao...

And i cant stand Sara and snows little gay back story but i am sure the plot will explode soon lightning is hella win tho shes ultra badass with a sexy temper : ) vanille is kinda annoying guess cuz shes really young and girly maybe she will shape up hanging around good ol light.

I also must say Odin is ultra win in this game hes so cool.

[Ant]

I'm really enjoying it so far, despite the linearness.

I am a big sufferer of the "one more save point" syndrome.  Quite moreish.

[obesebear]

I'm really enjoying it so far, despite the linearness.

I am a big sufferer of the "one more save point" syndrome.  Quite moreish.

My god, your last post was from 2002.  Wow. 8 years.

Anywho, back on topic.  I've been browsing a certain image board I frequent, the general consensus seems to be that after you play for 4 hours, the enemies get significantly tougher (a good challenge).  And most seem to agree that the story is actually quite good.

Maybe I'll rent it

[halkun]

I've been told if you turn the mini map off, it seems much less liniar...

[kevinlekiller]

I finished it Friday, I liked the last section, lots of great battles. Graphics looks really nice, wasn't a huge fan of the voice over, Vanille's voice is annoying ( she is 19 but sounds more like 13, she makes these moaning sounds all the time as well ).
The story is alright, it was hard to understand at first ( took me a while to figure out the whole l'cie / fal'cie thing ), what is really great with this game is the combat system it is like turned based mixed with real time , you only control one person at a time. Its not the best FF ever but definitely worth playing.

[hay]

I'll be in minority here then.
I played 11 chapters out of 13 as I know and it's terribly boring. There were like two or three challenging bosses up till now, and I still use auto-battle in every fight. Story is lacking, characters are weak, their development is artificial and mostly not convincing, scenario is full of errors and lacks consequence. Game mechanics and battle system is hardly an RPG. 3 stats, auto-battle all the way, limit on upgrades and linearity even there up till chapter 10.
And game's linearity until chapter 11 isn't that terrible. Sure it lacks exploration elements but on the other side, game is OK at most, so there wouldn't be much to explore except nice environments.

If it wasn't for beautiful CGI, nice visuals and Vanille's boobs, this game wouldn't have a bit of decency in it.

Unfortunatelly it sold really nice and Square decided to pull more of this crap.

Visuals: 9/10 (Superb)
Audio: 6/10 (OK. except really awesome prelude tune, the game lacks proper audio treatment. two main themes are repeated over and over, rave music in green forest, sounds sometimes are hardly fitting and not as good as the rest, uneven level of sound effects)
Gameplay: 6/10(OK. Despite boring combat system, weak mechanics, unnecessarily long battles, subpar upgrade system, gameplay is flashy and easy to follow in the beginning, and may show it's teeth later)
Story: 5/10(Mediocre. It's more like Dirge of Cerberus level of storyline. There's story shown in flashy cutscenes, some backstory to follow but it's not compelling or immersive at any point, char development lacks depth, characters are simple, scenario is full of errors, direction fails at times)

Overall(not an average of previous score): 6/10(OK).
But personally it's really disappointing.

[Tekkie.X]

I agree, plot is rather cliché, characters are either lifeless or are just rehashes of existing ones, Lightning is just Cloud/Squall with tits, Snow is a big dumb jock who would do anything for da purdy gurl, Vanille just annoys the f*** out of me, her high pitched Australian/British/American accent(she switches like every 2nd sentence) just doesn't sound right, Hope is the usual whiny generic teenager we've come to love hate from FF games recently.

Sahz's chocobo chick has more personality than the entire cast combined even if you include the cast of X and XII.

The music sounds like one long music track, each areas themes are almost indistinguishable from each other, the battle music is quiet and generally low key.


It's an amazing looking game though but I fear that was the main focus of development.


I'm about 13 hours in, stopped at a boss fight playing as Sahz and Vanille, probably half way through the 2nd Disc(360 version comes on 3).

[hay]

Hahah, exactly. I'll give kudos for Hope's voice actor, he was really good as a whiny teenager.

Chocobo chick was one of the better developed chars, overly intelligent, it even told Sazh and the rest which choice is correct one!

What's disappointing is the fact that only chars I liked died soon after appearing. Sucks.

Also scenario goofs: Cut out the escate route, one way to freedom, past PSICOM, they aim at the team, goes to in-game: PSICOM starts to wander around aimlessly, save point next to the team and you can evade most of the fights there. I repeat, PSICOM was ready to shoot at the team in the cutscene.
Other situation: Snow falls unconscious, they get him up and somehow he walks on his own feet without waking up.
Sazh's jump scene after first fight is composed of three barely fitting different scenes. Reminds me of 80's movies.
Lots of hardly fitting retrospections remind me of Black Dynamite movie.

And there's more to that.

[Ant]

I'm really enjoying it so far, despite the linearness.

I am a big sufferer of the "one more save point" syndrome.  Quite moreish.

My god, your last post was from 2002.  Wow. 8 years.

Crazy eh, playing a FF game after all these years made me think about Qhimm's site and how it was such an awesome resource during the FF7 days.

[Cloud187]

The music was REALLY poor through out most of the game.... I am a huge fan of Nobuo Uematsu but this was a huge upset to me. >IMO over other FF it was poor.

I just felt really out of place most parts of the game with the music. IMO the jazz music was *REALLY* out of place.

For the most part I liked a lot of the music like the battle theme and a few other themes but most of the game u have weird out of place themes and some of them have jibberish sounding vocals blareing in the background which was super out of place IMO.

Here is my rating.

Graphics 10/10
Gameplay 7/10
Audio 6/10* This was a hard thing to bare from Nobuo Uematsu's previous works....
Story/7/10
Summons 7/10
battle system 7/10* you can only control your party leader felt that was poor over older games.

I felt the game had superb graphics but Story although long and well thought was still some what poor. It was original do not get me wrong just so many things felt out of place. I felt a immediate difference from 12 to 13 especially being the last game out along with other FF's.

It was still a good game i just felt that the battle system was poor, 12 was a good attempt at a new battle system, it utilized all 3 characters under your control and although there were auto spells i felt it still held the feeling of the older FF games especially with the folklore and swords type of feel behind the games back drop. I feel that 12 did a better attempt at a new release even though it sold less that 13. Controlling only one character was a poor idea IMO i still had fun but it was not the same its 2 repetitive controlling only one character at a time. 12 did a much better job incorporating autocast IMO it had much more customization IMO than 13 did.

IMO this game was made for the nubs who want a easy auto casting type of game although 12 did just that you actually had to multitask all the characters for the most part. I never got the feeling of multitasking in 13. Its like your only one character and your just switch between "autocast"  paradigm shift, Leaving the tasks of 2 characters to the computers battle system....

Very poor battle system, music was out of place hugely in this game,Gameplay was decent due to mostly the graphics and CGI. Do not get me wrong I still liked the game i was just let down for the most part on many things i had hoped the revolutionized for the better and not the worse or the lame part. The summons were cool in their battle modes and gesalt, although I though Ifirit was stupid as hell in this game and was also let down there.The story was still original and decent i felt they captured the story firmly but did not like some of the characters mainly Sazh and vanille especially vanille and i thought a lot of the of parts were childish and silly.

I guess i wanted a more diverse style of battle a long with a more serious story line instead it was more broken down into segments, romance/seriousness/comedy. I felt they joked around to much in the start of the game when it should have been more serious, and there was way to much romance in the start i felt that is held much more mid game in RPG's. Everything just felt out of place in the Game, especially the characters and their backstory's especially vanilles and sazh. I felt lightning was very cool though and they did a 10/10 wit her

[Covarr]

The music was REALLY poor through out most of the game.... I am a huge fan of Nobuo Uematsu but this was a huge upset to me. >IMO over other FF it was poor.

Composer(s)   Masashi Hamauzu

That might explain it.

[titeguy3]

The music was REALLY poor through out most of the game.... I am a huge fan of Nobuo Uematsu but this was a huge upset to me. >IMO over other FF it was poor.

Composer(s)   Masashi Hamauzu

That might explain it.

GAAAAASSP! 

[Immortal Damyn]

Makes me sad Nobuo didn't make the musics for 13..... Not that I'm ever going to play it as I lack both a PS3 and an Xbox360...

[hay]

You don't miss much. Also Square disbanded their music studio so future audio case is even more uncertain.

[Prince Lex]

I think I may have lost my obsession for FF as a series. I don't own a PS3 but my flatmate owns a 360 so I'm considering buying for that, but this is the first FF released since 7 that I didn't buy on the release date. They just don't seem to have the same "magic" anymore (from what I'm reading, I haven't played it).

PSX Generation definitely wins in my book, I think it's time for me to accept that nothings ever going to beat them.

My opinion could change when I play it though. Without Nobuo Uematsu it's doubtful.

[Kudistos Megistos]

I'll probably get it second hand or when it goes platinum. I've heard very mixed reviews about this game and all of the objective facts I've heard about it make me think that I'll hate it. It's hilarious that the improved technology seems to have limited what developers can do with JRPGs in this generation. Aren't technological developments meant to allow developers to do more things with games?

[Prince Lex]

I'll probably get it second hand or when it goes platinum. I've heard very mixed reviews about this game and all of the objective facts I've heard about it make me think that I'll hate it. It's hilarious that the improved technology seems to have limited what developers can do with JRPGs in this generation. Aren't technological developments meant to allow developers to do more things with games?

I completely agree.

Also, did someone above say that this game is split into chapters? For I dislike games that are chapterized. *is rage*.