1. FraenLynn

   9

   I wouldn't say I'm an avid FF fan. I've played about four of the games, and enjoyed every one immensely. This is no different. Sure, this game, at times, became 'boring'. But I use this word in its loosest sense. The game kept me on my feet, yearning for what was going to happen next. I enjoyed the character's stories and their relationships with others. Many people disliked the battle style, but I found it intriguing and different. So many games are just, *press b to slash* or *hit this button to use a special move*. But you actually had to use your brain for this. Tactics were needed instead of button mashing. I would have given this game a ten, hands down, but one thing. Towards the end, the story sidetracks, and you are placed in the middle of nowhere. You have to fight a billion (quite literally) monsters to be good enough to move on. It took me, personally, at least ten hours (also literally) to be even close to killing the monster in the next area. In some ways, I enjoyed this because I could see how much I improved not only by the amount of damage I could deal, but by the tactics I used. As soon as I finished the game, I immediately went to buy the next one. Final Fantasy XIII is not for everybody, I understand that. It makes you think, it keeps you on your toes, it incorporates a very different battle style to ones used so often today. If you like games that are straight forward, easy, and not satisfying, don't get this game. However, if you are like me, someone who likes to get into their games, who likes to wrap their minds around them, who likes to analyze them and work out the best possible strategy to defeat that certain enemy, buy this game right now. Heck, by a PS3 just to buy this game.… Expand

   • Helpful? 6 of 8 users said Yes.
2. KingdomFantasy7

   8

   I thought this was a decent entry. Not the best, but not the worst. I've played much worse FF series than this. Anybody remember the rusty FF1, the terrible FF2 or the mediocre FF3? How about the boring FF11, the bland and slow FF12, or the disastrous FF14? And dare I say that we should not be reminded of titles like FFX-2, Dirge of Cerberus, or Revenant Wings? Again, I have played much worse than this title.
   
   Story was average, but could have used some tweaking. It looks like there was something that had been well developed, but it was not tightened enough. It seemed like SE wanted to go complex, but don't seem to understand that a complex storyline does not always mean a good storyline. I think what got people was the very big bombastic confusing beginning (remind you of Inception in that regards readers? Confusing as hell beginning but then flattened out?) They should have used characters like Hope and Vanille as exposition like Tidus was in FF10. Tidus may have been whiney, but he was good to get exposition provided.
   
   Gamplay was decent, I was interested in the Paradigm shift because it gave a different kind of control towards the players. I was able to get to my medic, spell-caster and attack class at much more easily. It even made me use the status ailments more often, which is something I thought was a bother in the past installments. Now rebuffs and buffs have a much bigger and better purpose. But the only thing that this system could have done without was the auto attack button. Maybe then this battle system could have worked. Much better than the slow tedious gameplay of FF12. Still, I think the turn based combat was not broken, so SE I have to asks why they felt the need to fix it?
   
   Linearity did not get to me, but I do believe that that could have been broken up with some openness. I did enjoy Lightning, Sazh and Fang (I'm on the fence with Snow), but Hope and Vanille were pretty bad characters. It seems like these two were the product of cranking the "Tidus and Yuffie" personality to 11 and this is the result of what happens. It's not like these personalities have not shown up before in the FF, but they do plague the series. Hopefully Square can get rid of these kinds of characters in future installments. I did have more connection to these 3 characters I liked than any of the bland characters in FF12. Thankfully Lightning did not turn out to be nothing more than a ruse of a main character like a certain character I know *coughcough-Vann-coughcough*. Sazh was one cool dude and Fang
   
   All and all, I'm giving this an 8 out of 10. That seems like the the most fair sense I did not give into any of the hype of FF13. In fact, I did not buy this title until 6 months after the game came out because FF12 had given me such a bad taste of boring and bland. I was satisfied with my purchase and love to see Versus 13 and how that story will handle the Etro mythology. Good luck to you Tetsuya Nomura!… Expand

   • Helpful? 4 of 7 users said Yes.
3. Regal4point1

   6

   FF13 is definitely one of my guilty pleasures, and this makes the game hard to recommend. It has its highlights, but the restriction required to get there isn't often worth it. The battle system is fast and fun, but easily exploitable. The plot is good but horribly executed. The characters are multi-dimensional but deliver rotten dialogue. The game's world is beautiful but restrictive. Every aspect of the game has at least one issue holding it back. Did I enjoy my time with it though? Oddly enough I did. You might be one of the few like me to get something out of it though.… Expand

   • Helpful? 7 of 9 users said Yes.
4. Abstractpurpose

   3

   Here is a game riding in on all the fame and glory of the final fantasy series. A legedary rpg franchise with core elements weve come to expect. Towns with npcs stores with weapons and gear not to mention the large story and history filled worlds.....all of which are absent from this entry. Only having controll of 1 character is the first of my dissapointments followed immediately by the healing after every battle factor. In past games youd stock up on phoenix downs potio.s and ether before setting out giving it the true feeling of a journy to come. This game simply heals you entirely after winning the fight which is a serious downgrade to the nature of the game. Next is the summons being transformers.... And of course the fact that the game is 1 set path with no towns or npcs. All stores are on the save cubes making it feel more like shopping at amazon than an ff game. These are just basic rpg elements to emmerse you in the world but dont exist at all here. I wonder how many people noticed that various soundtracks from every ff game ever made were absent as well. The story was ok but several enemies that looked to be interesting only showed up once removing the feeling of having that non final boss arch enemy. Another dumb down factor us paradigm shift. In previous games the class system provided you with the meens to build or use prebuilt classes so you coukd structure the most efficient team. However with paradigm shift everyone can be every class all at the flick of a button mid fight. The combat system LITTERALLY plays itself. Set everyone to ravager and stagger the enemy then switch to assult and kill them. This meens boss fights can be won without looking at the screen when rotating between the 2 with a full medic paradigm in between. Auto attack lets your character do the most effective attacks without you ever even having to think. The game has lost all the rpg elements created a combat system that requires no thought a healing system removing the need to stock items and the lack of a mana bar to pay attention too. Its the perfect final fantasy for any 2nd grader with downsyndrom… Expand

   • Helpful? 2 of 2 users said Yes.

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