[Enid]

Hmm this is what happens when they give us the release date too soon. Everybody hypes up the game and in the end are just disappointed when it didn't meet their expectations, which to be fair, were probably too high in the first place. I will definitely give this game a go at some point. Just gonna wait till trade in.

[Stu]

Sold it this morning. I'm sorry, but to say it's no more linear than FFX, whatever your opinion on it, is just crazy. Every Square fanboy has been saying this, in addition to such oddities as 'all those sidequests we have been playing for years were pointless, anyway!' in an attempt to defend the game from people who - *gasp* - don't like it.

X's map was linear, yes, but it had a purpose. It was exciting, faced past, and had the old style battle system. You didn't spend five hours per area running a bit, running into an enemy, running a bit more, and running into a cinematic. Rinse, wash and repeat.

Also the sphere grid was far superior and freeform to Chrystalis, which is not actually a character advancement system in the slightest. Merely the illusion of one. Think about it.

Who knows, Final Fantasy XIII might have gotten better, but I doubt it. After ten hours of playing X I knew who the main badasses were, why they were, who the good guys were, what kind of world we were living in - every detail really that you should know after playing ten hours of any game.

It's definately some peoples thing, sure, but advancing a story by walking in a straight direction for sixty hours isn't my idea of a game. It's absoloutely astounding that the development team spent years working on this game without once questioning the fact that they were going to piss a lot of people off. It's just lazy all around. They had an amazing game engine that cost a bundle to develop for so they concentrated on a nice, linear story. To hell with everything else.

To hell with Square too.

All hail Bioware and Bethesda.

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by Judas Iscariot

Sold it this morning. I'm sorry, but to say it's no more linear than FFX, whatever your opinion on it, is just crazy. Every Square fanboy has been saying this, in addition to such oddities as 'all those sidequests we have been playing for years were pointless, anyway!' in an attempt to defend the game from people who - *gasp* - don't like it.

X's map was linear, yes, but it had a purpose. It was exciting, faced past, and had the old style battle system. You didn't spend five hours per area running a bit, running into an enemy, running a bit more, and running into a cinematic. Rinse, wash and repeat.

Also the sphere grid was far superior and freeform to Chrystalis, which is not actually a character advancement system in the slightest. Merely the illusion of one. Think about it.

Who knows, Final Fantasy XIII might have gotten better, but I doubt it. After ten hours of playing X I knew who the main badasses were, why they were, who the good guys were, what kind of world we were living in - every detail really that you should know after playing ten hours of any game.

It's definately some peoples thing, sure, but advancing a story by walking in a straight direction for sixty hours isn't my idea of a game. It's absoloutely astounding that the development team spent years working on this game without once questioning the fact that they were going to piss a lot of people off. It's just lazy all around. They had an amazing game engine that cost a bundle to develop for so they concentrated on a nice, linear story. To hell with everything else.

To hell with Square too.

All hail Bioware and Bethesda.

The FFX comparisions are extremely fair, FFX was a straight line until you got the airship which was basically before the final area. Also the Sphere grid was basically a straight line too until you completed one characters path and then you could follow another character's straight path after, the only exception to this was Kimarhi who could choose to do Lulu's or Auron's after a short while. The Sphere Grid was basically 8 straight lines which after completing one character's you could choose to move that character to another part. The Crystarium isn't much difference, you can choose to fill up parts of each roles' Crystarium in any order you want. FFX is just as linear as FFXIII it just managed to create the illusion of choice better.

One of the mistakes FFXIII made though was not having sidequests and such earlier, Blitzball was good for breaking up FFX and there's no minigame/diversion equivelant in FFXIII, well not until later on in the game. The one of the only choices you had in FFX was the weapon customisation which is admitedly better then FXIII's Upgrade System (unless you get a choice what you want your weapon to transform into....I haven't got a weapon that levelled up yet so I'll have to wait and see on that point).

The pacing is quite slow I'll give you that and the initial 10 hours is basically focused on the characters then the overall story. I can't comment on it fully yet, it's not the greatest FF so far but it's not the worst (Say Hi FF3, 11 and 12). I'll see how I feel by the end of the game though to see if my opinion's changed.

[Stu]

That's the whole point though. To create the illusion of freedom. Virtually all games are linear to an extent, even older Final Fantasy games with world maps, but they successfully created a great sense of freedom and that's down to good old fashioned creative game development. Yoshinori Kitase and his team were obviously entirely unconcerned with this - they as much as admitted it when they said they wanted the first half of the game to play through like a FPS. Having to play through multiple discs just to get to the point where you can branch off and do your own thing - and that's only for a limited number of time - is just an absurd creative descicion and it's pissed a lot of people off.

Also, I remember the sphere grid being a lot more freeform than chrystalis. I'm still not a fan of it, and it's still also incredibly linear, but there were a lot more branching out opportunities. Not just the occasional dip to the side for 10 extra health points. I should know. I absoloutely sucked at which paths I took the first time around and blew it halfway through the game. Chrystalis simply won't let you do that. At least not until the very late stages of the game.

In my opinion this is certainly the worst Final Fantasy I have ever played. XII wasn't my cup of tea but it excelled at what it did. IMO III was fine for it's time, and miles better than II which was just full of overly bizarre conventions. I won't even bother comparing anything to XI. It sucked in it's own way and after eight hours of fighting bees to try and get somewhere I called it a day.

It's amazing to think that they are going back to give MMO's one more shot with XIV. Take the XIII engine and make an old school Final Fantasy for the fans who have felt disenfranchised by Square Enix's woes over the past few years, that's what I say. Give it to a seperate development team who will develop it alongside the next games in the series.

That, or just use the engine to remake VII. No more spin off's please. Just remake the finest game of all time or let it die a peaceful death in the hearts and minds of those who remembered a time when the name Squaresoft meant something.

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by Judas Iscariot

That's the whole point though. To create the illusion of freedom. Virtually all games are linear to an extent, even older Final Fantasy games with world maps, but they successfully created a great sense of freedom and that's down to good old fashioned creative game development. Yoshinori Kitase and his team were obviously entirely unconcerned with this - they as much as admitted it when they said they wanted the first half of the game to play through like a FPS. Having to play through multiple discs just to get to the point where you can branch off and do your own thing - and that's only for a limited number of time - is just an absurd creative descicion and it's pissed a lot of people off.

Also, I remember the sphere grid being a lot more freeform than chrystalis. I'm still not a fan of it, and it's still also incredibly linear, but there were a lot more branching out opportunities. Not just the occasional dip to the side for 10 extra health points. I should know. I absoloutely sucked at which paths I took the first time around and blew it halfway through the game. Chrystalis simply won't let you do that. At least not until the very late stages of the game.

In my opinion this is certainly the worst Final Fantasy I have ever played. XII wasn't my cup of tea but it excelled at what it did. IMO III was fine for it's time, and miles better than II which was just full of overly bizarre conventions. I won't even bother comparing anything to XI. It sucked in it's own way and after eight hours of fighting bees to try and get somewhere I called it a day.

It's amazing to think that they are going back to give MMO's one more shot with XIV.

XII was one I actually gave up on, I avoided it for years as I heard it was dodgy but I borrowed it a few weeks back and I just despised it. I hated the battle system and I just didn't care about the characters or story really. I can't comment on the original FF3 since it was never released outside of Japan but the remake was sh*tacular and the less said about MMO's the better.

They're only doing FFXIV to cash in on FFXI's success. I'm just gonna ignore it and focus on FFXIII Versus whenever that comes out.

[Stu]

I was lucky enough to play III through emulation - a very well known translation version exists. The port was pretty terrible alright.

Might go back and give XII another bash.

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by Judas Iscariot

I was lucky enough to play III through emulation - a very well known translation version exists. The port was pretty terrible alright.

Might go back and give XII another bash.

I think the remake just put me off for life . I dunno why but something about XII irritates me although Vaan probably has a lot to do with it.

[BB_Eye]

I'm about eight hours into the game and am quite annoyed by FFXIII's excessive linearity like everyone else. You expect it all to stop at some point, but it just goes on. The general lack of freedom in the game's early stages, in both movement and customisation, gets positively claustrophobic. I still think this is an excellent game in spite of all that and certainly much more fun than some of the mediocre crap I've played in the past year (*cough*Ghostbusters). There's only one way to find out how the game will change later on.

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by BB_Eye

I'm about eight hours into the game and am quite annoyed by FFXIII's excessive linearity like everyone else. You expect it all to stop at some point, but it just goes on. The general lack of freedom in the game's early stages, in both movement and customisation, gets positively claustrophobic. I still think this is an excellent game in spite of all that and certainly much more fun than some of the mediocre crap I've played in the past year (*cough*Ghostbusters). There's only one way to find out how the game will change later on.

I'm 13 hours into it, the linearity hasn't let up yet but the story's kicked up a bit more. I still think it's a great game though, the battle system just gets better and better as you go along.

[Damaris]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

Yeah same here, in terms of linearity and such it's no worse then FFX without Blitzball. How far you got in it?

Not that far haha.

Its hard getting on the ps3 ive just gotten past the ice bit.

[Damaris]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

Yeah same here, in terms of linearity and such it's no worse then FFX without Blitzball. How far you got in it?

Not that far haha.

Its hard getting on the ps3 ive just gotten past the ice bit.

[Damaris]

Snow,Vanille and Hope have sorta been pissing me of so far.
Snow is really whiney.
Vanille's voice
Hope generally being a ******.

[Damaris]

XII was horrible.Its the only Final Fantasy i have ever stopped playing.

I have only played the new one 4 hours ish and already itching for a hard battle.Everything has been so easy.

[Tom4784]

Vanille becomes less annoying and I quite like Hope really. The game will soon pick up the difficulty, It becomes surprisingly challenging at parts so savour the easiness and for the love of god save your Deceptisols/Fortisols/other Sols.

[Enid]

Despite all the negativity so far, I'm really itching to play this game. I'm hoping my house mate will buy it so I can nick it off him.

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by Enid

Despite all the negativity so far, I'm really itching to play this game. I'm hoping my house mate will buy it so I can nick it off him.

I'm 20 hours into it now and it is really good, might even by one of my favourite FF's so far. All I'll say is that it does start off quite slow but once it gets going it really takes off.

[Damaris]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

Vanille becomes less annoying and I quite like Hope really. The game will soon pick up the difficulty, It becomes surprisingly challenging at parts so savour the easiness and for the love of god save your Deceptisols/Fortisols/other Sols.

Haha i do like Hope but he is so depressed constantly.I mean i understand because of his mum still he brings the mood down.Vanille again i like her but at the moment lol.Is she australian?.

Hahahaha i will

[Damaris]

Originally Posted by Enid

Despite all the negativity so far, I'm really itching to play this game. I'm hoping my house mate will buy it so I can nick it off him.

I really love it!

But people are bound to be critical with Final Fantasy because its such a well loved series and people are die hard fans.

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by Damaris

Haha i do like Hope but he is so depressed constantly.I mean i understand because of his mum still he brings the mood down.Vanille again i like her but at the moment lol.Is she australian?.

Hahahaha i will

Yeah she's meant to be Australian I think although it's quite a bizarre version of it. Hope's probably my favourite character really, he really grew on me.

[Damaris]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

Yeah she's meant to be Australian I think although it's quite a bizarre version of it. Hope's probably my favourite character really, he really grew on me.

I assuming Hope picks up a bit then.

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by Damaris

I assuming Hope picks up a bit then.

Yeah and plus he kicks ass in fights

[Damaris]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

Yeah and plus he kicks ass in fights

Seriously? Haha.

Thats sounds impossible to me right now cus i have only played it for a little bit and he has his airwing thing!

When are you allowed to change your team?

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by Damaris

Seriously? Haha.

Thats sounds impossible to me right now cus i have only played it for a little bit and he has his airwing thing!

When are you allowed to change your team?

He's a great magic user, learns attack spells quicker then most of the team.

Around 20 hours into it. It's one thing about the linearity I did hate since at times you'll have more then enough people to switch your team around but it won't let you until all the characters are together.

It's good in a way though I suppose since it forces you to learn each characters skillsets and such and plus everyone developes equally really which is good.

[Damaris]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

He's a great magic user, learns attack spells quicker then most of the team.

Around 20 hours into it. It's one thing about the linearity I did hate since at times you'll have more then enough people to switch your team around but it won't let you until all the characters are together.

It's good in a way though I suppose since it forces you to learn each characters skillsets and such and plus everyone developes equally really which is good.

Awesome i guess have to wait for that hehe.

I guess that can be a good thing because theirs nothing worse in Final Fantasy in not knowing how to use a character properly.

What do you think of Snow?

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by Damaris

Awesome i guess have to wait for that hehe.

I guess that can be a good thing because theirs nothing worse in Final Fantasy in not knowing how to use a character properly.

What do you think of Snow?

I like him, I don't think he is as developed as other characters yet but he's good. He's quite a good character in battle too, very strong can draw attacks away from his team mates and can attack with magic as well.

He is in my team at the moment.